> > and when they can finally see a finish line it is just poof... gone in a day. It was two years of effort from at least one guy and more likely a team.
> If so, then they were paid for those hours and are perfectly whole right now.
People are not ideal money-fed automatons. Even if you're fully paid for your software development, it feels bad to see all your work thrown away.
If only I had also said something like "maybe their career takes a dent but I do not weep for anyone who worked on this" to indicate that I understood that obviosity.
> > People are not ideal money-fed automatons. Even if you're fully paid for your software development, it feels bad to see all your work thrown away.
> maybe their career takes a dent but I do not weep for anyone who worked on this
Even if they were fully paid, and even if their career is not affected at all (or even improves, "I wrote the xz backdoor" would be an impressive line in a curriculum if you disregard the moral aspects), it can still feel bad to see your work thrown away so close to the finish line. People are not career-driven automatons.
But I agree with you, I do not feel bad for the author of this backdoor; whoever did that does deserve to see this work unceremoniously dumped into the trash. But I can understand why the ones who worked on that code would feel bad about it.
> If so, then they were paid for those hours and are perfectly whole right now.
People are not ideal money-fed automatons. Even if you're fully paid for your software development, it feels bad to see all your work thrown away.