A couple of things on the "lawyers" and "management" points. The "DoD's clarifying guidance" he's talking about is almost certainly this[1]. It's got some good

A couple of things on the "lawyers" and "management" points. The "DoD's clarifying guidance" he's talking about is almost certainly this[1]. It's got some good information about open source in general, even if it is a little dry. If you can prove that there is support and training available for a piece of software and you can get it approved by your local information assurance officer then you can put it on the Air Force network. As far as getting it approved by your local IAO; let's say you want Python on your computer and the IAO says no then you can point to your local Redhat server (which comes already built with Python) and point out that you have already accepted any risks associated with Python by using Redhat. Another good resource for getting management to buy off on any risk is the EPL[2]. If the software is on that list then someone else in the Air Force is already using it, and the software has already gone through an approval process. Edit: I just realized my second link might be CAC only ... hopefully it will be useful for any contractors/military folks that browse HN. [1] http://dodcio.defense.gov/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.aspx http://dodcio.defense.gov/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.aspx [2] https://cs3.eis.af.mil/sites/afao/Lists/COTSGOTS%20Software/EPL.aspx https://cs3.eis.af.mil/sites/afao/Lists/COTSGOTS%20Software/...