Re: Open-Source Fight Flares at Pentagon (Washington Post) [LWN.net]

From:	 Eric Smith <eric@brouhaha.com>
To:	 letters@lwn.net
Subject: Re: Open-Source Fight Flares at Pentagon (Washington Post)
Date:	 28 May 2002 14:10:25 -0000

Gentlemen,

On May 23, you referenced an article by Jonathan Krim in the Washington
Post regarding use of open-source software in the Defense Department.
There was an interesting statement in the last paragraph of that
article:

    ... the Defense Department is now prohibited from purchasing any
    software that has not undergone security testing by the NSA.

Perhaps more interesting is what the article did NOT say, which is that
free software does NOT need to be purchased.  While many people focus on
the "free speech" aspect of free software (and rightfully so), there are
definitely some circumstances in which the "free beer" aspect can be
important and useful.

I'm not trying to suggest that the Defense Department and NSA should not
conduct security testing of free software, but merely that procurement
regulations are a complete non-issue for it.

(Log in to post comments)

Will the Pentagon appreciate Free Beer?

Posted Jun 7, 2002 1:45 UTC (Fri) by Baylink (guest, #755) [Link]

Hell, yeah! Just because they're flag officers...

All seriousness aside, this is an *excellent* example of the sort of culture jamming that I don't think Micros~1 is equipped to compete with.

Their stock having fallen from the 120's to the 50's in two years, I see no reason to alter my prediction that they will not look anything like they do now -- if indeed they still exist at all -- by close of business 2005.

You heard it hear... well, about 8th or 9th, actually... :-)

Re: Open-Source Fight Flares at Pentagon (Washington Post)

Posted Jun 11, 2002 23:03 UTC (Tue) by Thyrsus (guest, #1953) [Link]

If I hadn't been witnessing security stupidity for my entire computing
career, I would think it would go without saying, but: let us hope that
there are *deployment* regulations that require security audits of software!
It seems evident that open source software would be easier to audit.