July 4th, 2004
President Pushes for Open Source
The Indian national daily The Hindu has reported that the Indian President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has “advised defence scientists to shun proprietary systems and opt for open source codes to enhance software security in defence networks.”
Open source codes can easily introduce the users to build security algorithms in the system without the dependence of proprietary platforms. We should take maximum care to ensure that our solution is unique to protect our own defence security solutions implemented on open platforms.
I have noticed a general movement towards open-source in the Indian defence organisations over the last few years. However, I would venture to say that it’s mainly experimental since most of the IT-aware professionals that get hired are Windows oriented. But with the new breed of professionals more in-tune with open source and more and more people in the decision making levels becoming aware of what the noise is all about, it’s becoming quite interesting every year. Perhaps the reason why Microsoft decided to show India its source?
The next few years should be quite interesting indeed.