In this op-ed piece at Developer.com, Charles Connell explains why he believes that all source code should be open, whether or not it is released under an open source license. (Connell does not suggest that all software should be released as open source.) Connell writes . . .

“Most software is poorly designed and built. This statement comes as no surprise to anyone in the software industry and is elucidated well by Charles Mann in his popular article 'Why Software Is So Bad'. I have proposed a framework for better software architectures in my article 'Most Software Stinks', which served as one of the sources for Mann's piece. But even if everyone accepted my proposal for improving software design (which they don't), there is still a problem. How do we get software designers and programmers to raise the quality of their work? Because few people ever see their immediate product (the source code), what would motivate engineers to do better? The answer is that all source code should be open and included in every software release. This single policy change would have a profound impact on the quality of software systems worldwide . . .”

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