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German Gov't, Free Software, and Secure E-mail

Posted by Hemos on from the germans-take-the-lead dept.

friday2k writes "There is a nice Article on Newsforge describing how the German Government moves ahead on looking into Free Software solutions for government agencies. And you need a standard, secure, email client for this." Basically, they are funding some good secure e-mail - but making sure that it works with stuff like Kmail.

4 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. saving their taxpayers $$$ by jeffy124 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By doing this, they are saving their taxpayers a bundle (easily billions) by not spending so much on licensing fees from Sun or Microsoft. That money saved can go to greater things like making better schools, etc.

    The article starts out saying that Congress wants to outlaw Open source via the SSSCA.

    Perhaps congress should visit our German buddies and see how a switch to OSS can benefit the American public. A little bit of seeing what's happening abroad could go a long way.

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  2. Well it's about time... by motherhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would advocate that governments only use open source projects...

    the fact that the DoJ was supposedly at war with M$, while at the same time handing over some of M$'s largest contracts seems insane...

    I would almost call it a chuch/state issue...

  3. I believe it when I see it. by twms2h · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hi,

    Living in this country that "supports open source" I am rather sceptically about the whole issue.

    The German parliament was also "looking into alternatives for Windows especially Linux", they said. And a few weeks later it was announced that they had made a new deal with Microsoft who gave them some better conditions than originally offered. Linux was no longer an option after that. What do we learn from that: Linux makes a good argument when you want a good deal from Microsoft.

    twm

  4. It's a fair fight, got a problem with that? by imrdkl · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The "good uses" of encryption are here to stay.

    One of the tactics of the black hats seems to be to dig around for information from places, and perhaps in ways, which might not be quite so easy for them to get access to, when the white hats learn to use encryption as well as "they" do.

    For example, consider mining an airline booking site to see which flights have special prices. This type of information retrieval might become better protected, because such information could lead to speculation about the human-density on the flight.

    Consider also, that Europe, as Us, is devastated by every new MS worm that comes around. But if they'd only use SSL server encryption more widely, they'd be unbothered by such simple virusen. Managers will buy more servers, because SSL takes more horsies, (as every other form of encryption), users will share information in a more sensible way, the economy will rebound, etc., etc.. :)

    I contend that the most interesting authorities built out of X.509, in any case objCA, sslCA, and objsign (from openssl docs and Netscape definitions), should continue to be widely encouraged. emailCA, perhaps is for the more mature organization, but an organizations email can sometimes be the biggest "hole" of all. It should be closed-up, in any good business activity, anywhere, eventually.

    The point is, everyones already got this stuff. The playing field is even, and we have to fight dishonesty with the same tools as are being used to hide it.

    Not to worry unless someone tells you to put your certificate on your head or your hand (right). Right?