…all this and more in this week’s compendium of open source news!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Sounds like a Strauss Waltz? Almost. After 10 years the city of Munich’s love affair with open source may be coming to an end.  Despite saving $16 million by using the custom Linux distribution LiMux, the city is considering switching back to Windows due to user complaints.  Read more about the motives surrounding the discussion at Network World.   

Governments on GitHub

Governments across the globe have long been dabbling with open source software.  Use of Open Source products like OpenOffice, Linux and Drupal are becoming commonplace. To further this trend, many governments are beginning to open source their own code as illustrated by the 10,000 active government users on GitHub. You could argue that since it is our taxes, then the code should be open.  Read more about this growing trend at InfoWorld.

You Want Privacy? Google & Yahoo Are Here to Help

As a response to privacy concerns Google and Yahoo will be collaborating on end-to-end encryption for their respective webmail systems.  The code will then be open sourced and safe, because the larger community can help search for bugs, backdoors, etc. Read more at Tech News World.

Who Are You Going To Sue? 

At the recent Black Hat security conference, In-Q-Tel’s CIO Dan Greer laid out this thoughts on software security and liability.  Greer believes that in the future software manufacturers will be held responsible for any problems caused by their software.  By open sourcing all software Greer thinks it will be easier to pinpoint and remedy security problems.  You can read his full rationale here.

GPL For House Design, Apache for Cars?

Well, it had to happen.  The world is going gaga with open source. After open source plants and open source drugs, we have open source cars and open source houses! Paperhouses and a dozen other companies now offer architectural plans for a variety of dwellings. In the automotive industry, Local Motors thinks open source hardware can help accelerate the car design process allowing for transparency into what works and what doesn't work. And of course Open source seems poised to dominate automotive software.

Some sage advice…

If you’re curious about how open source vulnerability management fits into quality testing processes take a look at what our COO Norm Glaude has to say in a recent issue of Professional Tester Magazine.