When software isn’t a “supply”
Blog post from Snyk
Snyk’s Daniel Appelquist argues that “software supply chain” is a useful but imperfect metaphor for describing the interconnected dependencies, registries, marketplaces, and maintainers involved in modern open source development. While the term helps policymakers and nontechnical decision-makers understand software security concepts such as SBOMs, it can incorrectly imply that open source maintainers have contractual supplier relationships with projects that use their work. The author cites the Log4j era, when Curl creator Daniel Stenberg received procurement requests treating him as a formal supplier, as an example of the confusion this language can create. Appelquist notes that open source communities range from corporate-oriented projects, where supply-chain terminology may fit, to free software communities that may reject the framing, and recommends either using terms such as “software dependency chain” in appropriate contexts or more clearly explaining what “software supply chain” does and does not mean.
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