US Dept. of Defense Creates Its Own Sourceforge

mjasay writes "The US Department of Defense, which has been flirting with open source for years as a way to improve software quality and cut costs, has finally burst the dam on Defense-related open-source adoption with Forge.mil, an open-source code repository based on Sourceforge. Though it currently only holds three projects and is limited to DoD personnel for security reasons, all code is publicly viewable and will almost certainly lead to other agencies participating on the site or creating their own. Open source has clearly come a long way. Years ago studies declared open source a security risk. Now, one of the most security-conscious organizations on the planet is looking to open source to provide better security than proprietary alternatives."

Comments

Re:~obscurity = security?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a server running somewhere on the internet.
It has an IPv4 address with an open port 666
The password is donkeydick69

If you can't find and login then obscurity does equal security.

We needed this years ago

[superid]

When I was first hired as a budding DoD programmer a long time ago, one of the first things I asked is "where is our library of stuff that has been developed locally?"

I might as well have asked "where is my +3 mace?" because we didn't have that either.

I'm glad this is finally happening.

Studies?

[Wolfbone]

Years ago studies declared open source a security risk.

Since when did risible falsehood and fallacy filled rants written by swivel-eyed ideologues count as 'studies'?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ken_Brown

One project already works and is in use.

[will_die]

It looks like the military has solve the problem of time travel and web master has let it slip. According to the FAQ
The Forge.mil effort started development in October 2009 and the first capability, SoftwareForge, is now available for limited, unclassified use.