I get asked, not constantly, but often why SPIKE and SPIKE Proxy are
open source. Often it's because someone has started using SPIKE Proxy,
and doesn't have a lot of experience with the commercial alternatives,
but does have experience with other large software projects, and sees
some value. Why aren't you making money off that value? They want to
know.

The answer is not complex - I simply can't afford to compete with
commercial solutions in the race to become the best web application
auditing tool without being GPL. And I firmly believe that SPIKE Proxy
should and will eventually be the best web application auditing tool
money can or can't buy.

Using the GPL gives me many advantages against commerical projects,
and using Python gives me many advantages against even other GPL'd
projects. For example, SPIKE Proxy is first-to-market with VulnXML,
integrated NTLM support, and many other things that were only possible
by integrating other GPL projects into SPIKE Proxy, or getting patches
from users, customers, and other interested parties. Python more
productive a language than Java (which many competitors are written
in), and MUCH more so than C or C++. And it's easy enough to learn
that even non-programmers can fiddle with it and send me patches.

So enjoy - I know the GUI isn't where it should be, and I'm working on
that, but the rest of it is top notch, and getting better every
day. Feel free to send me a note if you think it is lacking in any
way, or you have any feature suggestions. I'm just happy you're using
it.

Dave Aitel

