French military says Mozilla software more secure than Microsoft

The French military has dubbed Mozilla’s latest email client Thunderbird as more secure than Microsoft Outlook. The department found using open source software designed by Mozilla has allowed it to build extensions for security, whereas Microsoft’s own software allows no extensions to be made. “We started with a military project, but quickly generalised it,” Lieutenant-Colonel […]

Patrick Stafford 13 December, 2009

The French military has dubbed Mozilla’s latest email client Thunderbird as more secure than Microsoft Outlook.

The department found using open source software designed by Mozilla has allowed it to build extensions for security, whereas Microsoft’s own software allows no extensions to be made.

“We started with a military project, but quickly generalised it,” Lieutenant-Colonel Frederic Suel told The Age.

The military now uses the Thunderbird client on over 80,000 computers, with other government ministries now using the software.

The French military is just one of many government departments around the world moving to open source software, which allows developers to create new functions and applications of the software for their own personal use.