The Washington Post
reports that Microsoft has
been lobbying the Pentagon to stop employing open source software and
to switch to proprietary solutions, like, ... ahem, Microsoft's. (Microsoft
Fights Free Software at Pentagon). In a "barrage" of
contacts aimed at Pentagon officials, the company has argued that
"`open source' software threatens security and its intellectual
property," apparently confusing what is good for the country
(security) with what is good for Microsoft (maximizing its profits
and crushing all open source providers underfoot). Unfortunately for
Microsoft, a recent report prepared for the Department of Defense
concluded that "open source often results in more secure, less
expensive applications and that, if anything, its use should be expanded."
This story is important not merely because Microsoft is once again
putting its own interests above those of the public. It's important
because it suggests a way to transcend the usual debates about
freedom of innovation versus government regulation of technology, as
well as debates about the long-term viability of open source versus
proprietary architectures. Government contracting is an important but
often overlooked way that government officials can promote socially
useful business practices without mandating particular technological
architectures through law. By acting as a consumer rather than a
legislator or regulator, government can create market incentives for
open architectures and open source solutions, and help to establish
those solutions as industry standards. The best thing that the
federal government could do to promote democratic technologies would
be to embrace open source and open architectures as the preferred
form of technology in all of its government contracts, not just the
Pentagon's. Microsoft understands this potential threat to its
dominance as well as anyone.
Additional Resources (by Ernest Miller) below:
Slashdot readers are divided over the merits of Microsoft's proposal - Not! (Microsoft Battles Free Software at Pentagon), see also (MS Cites National Security to Justify Closed Source)
The recent report that concluded that open source should be used more extensively does not seem to be online, but was prepared by the Mitre Corporation, a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government.
The NSA has developed their own "Security-Enhanced Linux", explaining that:
Linux was chosen as the platform for this work because its growing success and open development environment provided an opportunity to demonstrate that this functionality can be successful in a mainstream operating system and, at the same time, contribute to the security of a widely used system.