The U.S. Defense Department should think twice before embracing open-source
software, a trade association is advising.
The Initiative for Software Choice, which counts Microsoft, Cisco Systems
and Intel among its backers, said in comments filed Tuesday that the
department should "avoid crafting needless and potentially detrimental IT
policy to promote the use" of open-source software. "Open source" means
every software developer can view the source code for software, modify it,
and use it for free.
The initiative, which launched in May and is chaired by a group called
CompTIA, an organization that has close ties to Microsoft, is worried about
a recent report that concluded the Defense Department relies on open-source
software and recommended its further adoption.
Written by defense contractor MITRE, the report said that free and
open-source software "plays a more critical role in the (Defense Department)
than has been generally recognized" and endorsed it as a viable alternative
to proprietary Microsoft products.
This week, the Initiative for Software Choice counterattacked, telling the
Defense Information Systems Agency that the Pentagon should not "openly
promote the use" of open-source software, arguing that proprietary products
are not inherently less secure.
The group also assailed the General Public License (GPL), which generally
permits programmers to incorporate code released under the GPL as long as
they make their own source code available.
"While the law on this matter remains untested, it makes sense for companies
to be highly risk-averse in this area, striking a more defensive posture
when confronted with software development that may implicate GPL code or
similar coding environments," the initiative said. "Commercial and hybrid
software developers generally do not want to risk losing their investment."
Proprietary software companies such as Microsoft have labeled open-source
software as a serious threat and have begun to oppose its use by
governments. At the same time, however, nations such as France and Germany
have begun to encourage open-source software to limit their dependence on
proprietary vendors and to stimulate local software development.
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