Thunderbirds are Go for French Military

Something that caught the eye on Slashdot this morning was the story about the French Military adopting Thunderbird as their mail client. I’m doing a bit of work on comparing the security features of Linux and Windows and by extension open source vs. closed. An early conclusion is that the merits and defects of each approach are very subjective. Indeed any attempt at rational debate on the subject tends to descend into a slanging match between the different camps. What is interesting about the Thunderbird story is it shows that the French consider that the open source mail client is secure enough for military use.

It would be naive to think the only selection criteria used was security; indeed the French government has a policy of seeking "maximum technological and commercial independence" for all its software. However, one would hope that security was a major factor in the selection process.

Further reading suggests that a plus point of Thunderbird for the French Military was that it allowed them to develop their own security extensions. Being able to review the original source code was also advantageous.