NewsForge: German government email contract could lead to agencies switching to Free Software

Oct 05, 2001, 21:24 (4 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Grant Gross)

"Just as the U.S. Congress begins considering a bill that some advocates believe will outlaw Open Source operating systems , the German government has hired three companies to create Free Software email options for its IT security agency's email project.

The German Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (Federal Agency for IT Security, also known as BSI) has contracted with the German Free Software companies Intevation and g10 Code and Swedish platform-independent software company Klarälvdalens Datakonsult for its Sphinx secure email project. Company officials predict the contract could lead to wider adoption of Free Software by the German government.

The three companies' Project Ägypten will focus on making Open Source email programs KMail and mutt compatible with Sphinx, which include standards S/MIME and X.509v3. The results of the project will be released under the GNU GPL."

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