LWN reports on an analysis by David Wheeler on a new memorandum from the US department of defense.

Main takeaways (emphasis mine):

• “In almost all cases, OSS meets the definition of ‘commercial computer software’ and shall be given appropriate statutory preference…”
• the DoD is “required to conduct market research… [and should] include OSS [in the research] when it may meet mission needs”.
• “if you use a binary program, you must either have a warranty or the source code for a program.“
  I do wonder how this confirms with eg any standard Windows EULA whose warranty is restricted to damage payments of … 5$ or so?
• “To effectively achieve its missions, the [DoD] must develop and update its software-based capabilities faster than ever,[…]. The use of Open Source Software (OSS) can provide advantages in this regard…”.

It seems the Department of Defense has understood Open Source better than many companies…