No open-source software allowed in products and services

I was recently pointed to a German bank’s AGB (general purchasing terms and conditions), which contained the following clause:

9.5 The SUPPLIER guarantees that as part of provided services no open source software has been used.

I think such a clause warrants a deeply humored #MUWHAHA.

First, the factual. Even Windows contains open-source software. Open-source software reigns supreme among engineering tools. It is completely impossible today that the provision of services by a supplier to a bank has not involved some open-source software.

So maybe they wanted to say that any delivered software does not contain open-source software, ignoring tools used along the way.

Then, I can only say: SELL SELL SELL that bank’s stock, because it is wasting money and precious resources on programming competitively non-differentiating software components many of which are readily available as high-quality open source components.

As I previously pointed out, in the news or Silicon Valley bubble, we sometimes think that open source has long won. In reality, to use a favorite quote, that future may already have arrived, it is just not evenly distributed yet.