So with open source software more on my mind lately I was wondering - while I get the benefits of transparency and such, how safe is it? If the source code is available to all, isn’t it easier to breach for people (like the recent cookies hack)? If I’d have an open source password manager, would it be easier for people to get my passwords somehow than if I use something not open source? Do I just not understand how software works in general?
And what are other benefits that may be not so obvious to someone not so knowledgable about this?
Edit: thank you all for really insightful answers! Among other things I also learned just how much I don’t know :)
The software is as safe as it’s maintainers. The Linux kernel runs the majority of the world’s devices, open source software makes up just about every industry standard piece of software that runs the web. Linux tends to see a lot less major vulnerabilities than Windows, and fixes for those are released much faster because anyone can submit the fix, maybe even the person who found it in the first place.