Did MS Lobbying Stop NSA Work On SELinux?

inquisitive points to this CNET story on how George Wash Univ. may help Linux gain certification under the Common Criteria, certification required for software to be used in some sensitive government roles. In the same story, though, is an interesting quote from another effort at bringing GPL'd software to the public sector: "'We didn't fully understand the consequences of releasing software under the GPL (General Public License),' said Dick Schafer, deputy director of the NSA. 'We received a lot of loud complaints regarding our efforts with SE Linux.'" Sources familiar with events said that aggressive Microsoft lobbying efforts have contributed to a halt on any further work. 'Microsoft was worried that the NSA's releasing open-source software would compete with American proprietary software,' said a source familiar with the complaints against the NSA who asked not to be identified."

Comments

weak.....

[reaper20]

If MS keeps saying how much better Windows is in the server room then why are they worried about SELinux?

Seems like they're having a hard time believing their own hype - maybe if they spent the effort fixing the SSL IE/Windows hole, then SELinux wouldn't have such an 'advantage'.

Re:To serve and protect whom?

[Elwood P Dowd]

Exactly. Since the govt can't release patches to the Linux kernel under the BSD license, then the government should not release patches to the Linux kernel.

I thought I was pretty clear.