back to article MoD releases code to GitHub: Our Ideaworks... sort of

The Ministry of Defence is to consider making some of its more "sophisticated" software available online, having for the first time publicly released code onto open-source site Github.com. The web application "Ideaworks" was developed by the MoD'S Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for work collaboration. A …

  1. Tom 38

    TrelloForWargames

    I found it interesting that they find python + wsgi + centos + ansible "painful".

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Name

    They couldn't call it "ThoughtWorks" because there is already a consultancy of that name...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spot the error

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78959/All_About_Open_Source_v2_0.pdf

    On the whole contracts are large and encompass a large estate, this has limited the suppliers (and solutions) able to meet the requirements and to some extent has excluded SMEs and open source solutions. Contracts have therefore traditionally been awarded to SIs who have their own set of preferred (and usually proprietary) products. Their existing agreements are with proprietary software houses and existing skills are focused on proprietary products, there is not a culture of actively looking for open source software. There may also be commercial incentives for the incumbent systems integrators to work with a limited set of proprietary software vendors.

    Government departments are often locked into these contacts and in most cases feel they have little scope to explore alternative open source solutions for evolving requirements within the business.

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Fecking GPL

    So all the software (this is a Django application) they're using is permissvely licensed and they have to stick the GPL 3 on it? Can't see this getting much take up as a result. Still, I guess it's a start.

    Peer review = no conditions

    1. A J Stiles

      Re: Fecking GPL

      When Windows and Office come under a permissive licence, you might have a point.

      The whole idea of the GPL is to ensure that the fruits of human endeavour belong to as much of humanity as possible, by preventing the growth of subtly-incompatible, closed-source forks. What reason could anyone possibly have for opposing the use of the GPL, beside wanting to create their own closed fork of someone else's project?

    2. Jonathan Richards 1

      What's your problem? Re: Fecking GPL

      They've used the Affero GPL, because, I suspect (and expect) that they want to achieve the purpose which that licence ensures, viz. that anyone deploying a modified Ideaworks instance contributes their server-side code changes back into the community. If they'd wanted to use BSD or whatever, they could, but it's possible that m'learned friends in the MOD would have thought that code from a public body [1] ought to be published with good protections. You will note that the application is Crown Copyright.

      [1] DSTL is what remains within MOD of the former Defence Research Establishments [2], the vast bulk of which was privatised and is now Qinetiq.

      [2] Homeland of the original boffins, of course.

      1. Mark 65

        Re: What's your problem? Fecking GPL

        That's exactly how it should be don't you think? A Government department paid for by the taxpayer releases software under the GPL. Free for all to use under the condition that improvements are contributed back. I see no problem as the taxpayer then benefits from this and society benefits should the code be any use. It also allows the potential for small outfits to familiarise themselves with MoD software, improve it, and potentially tout for a support contract. The alternative is they give it away under a permissive license that some company benefits from, produces a product that is highly profitable and the taxpayer gets fuck all in return.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sophisticated

    I wonder if they are using the old meaning of "sophisticated", perhaps the software they are publishing is an offensive weapon :-)

  6. tony2heads

    has anybody used it ?

    Sounds a nice idea, but has anyone here experienced it?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It'll just be old BBC BASIC code summat like this -

    10 Print "DEFCON 1"

    20 INPUT WAR?$

    30 IF WAR?$ = "Launch nukes at Moscow" THEN GOTO 50

    40 GOTO 10

    50 NUKE MOSCOW

    60 PRINT "Ha, fuck you Russia"

    70 END

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