Congress Endorses Open Source For Military 145
A draft defense authorizing act in Congress includes wording plugging open source software. It seems both cost and software security were considerations. This is an important victory for open source. "It's rare to see a concept as technical as open-source software in a federal funding bill. But the House's proposed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (H.R. 5658) includes language that calls for military services to consider open-source software when procuring manned or unmanned aerial vehicles."
new clause? (Score:3, Interesting)
The real question (Score:1, Interesting)
The real question is what company is trying to sell UAVs to the government, and is offering open source. My guess is one of the small Israeli companies managed to get this put in the appropriations bill to help them.
Re:new clause? (Score:3, Interesting)
>>I wonder if this will cause new clauses in gpl terms similar to commercial usage clauses preventing the support of any millitary, etc?
I doubt it.
The FSF will be more interested in the other side having the same access.
Freedom for all, even your enemies.
Re:Enjoy it while it lasts. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Old News (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, and it will probably give them leverage when negotiating with those vendors.
Re:Old News (Score:3, Interesting)
And, who modded this guy informative?
Re:Old News (Score:5, Interesting)
From a non-USA point of view, I think this is a great step for open source solutions, but more for software in general.
It's been know that whatever the US military puts their hands on, that can grow to a great size. The whole Arpanet->Internet analogy may or may not be flawed for this. A lot of innovation comes from military funded projects.
The open source model is a great source (no pun intended) of innovation and combining those two points could lead to a massive step forward.
/PersonalOpinion
I wondered about that (Score:3, Interesting)
As much as I am pro Open Source... (Score:1, Interesting)
...this is dangerous. Everyone who has worked in IT knows what kind of trouble you get in when non-technical folks start suggesting solutions rather than defining their problem spaces. In the business world it's often users who bring a problem and a solution to IT workers but the problem is the solution often only fixes part of the problem or fixes it poorly. I can easily see Congress creating the same situation here. I personally think OSS software is the best way to go and show a bias toward it in selecting solutions but that said to have it included in legislation is a bit scary.