Free Software Magazine: War and Free Software

“On a sunny and seasonably warm January 27, 2007 Saturday
afternoon about 500,000 people marched in Washington DC to send
Congress the message to end America’s occupation in Iraq and bring
the troops home. But, if the U.S. (and other countries) war
machines have their way, future conflicts will rely less on human
troops and more on automated weapons systems. And for all the
reasons that FOSS is being chosen to satisfy businesses and
individuals IT needs, so too is it being chosen by the world’s
militaries to design, simulate, test and control their future
weapons.

“As most of us know, FOSS provides an abundant set of efficient
and productive tools. Many are aware of the reported peaceful uses
of FOSS in government. Linux has long been used in NASA, to create
beowulf clusters, and now to develop land robot explorers. And, of
course, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) provided
most of the vision, funding and research in the creation of the
internet, and more recently has sponsored the Grand Challenges
competition for robot controlled vehicles…”

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