Google to open source EtherPad

EtherPad, a real-time hosted word processor that Google acquired, is to be open sourced instead of being discontinued, reports PC World.

Google recently decided to discontinue the Web-hosted versions of the application. However, due to an outcry from current EtherPad users, Google says users will be able to continue creating new hosted 'pads' until the EtherPad software is released as an open source project.

"We have begun planning how to open source the code to EtherPad and the underlying AppJet Web Framework. We will continue maintaining new pad creation from the EtherPad home page at least until we have open sourced the code," says Aaron Iba, former AppJet CEO.

A report from Veracode says open source code is more prone to severe flaws than commercial software, but bugs get fixed more quickly, says V3.

The latest findings from the project rated just 24% of open source software as meeting an "acceptable level of security", and commercial software marginally worse with 23%.

"All code is pretty bad, whether commercial or open source, but the fixes are done more quickly and efficiently with open source. There are more eyeballs on the code, and programmers seem to take more pride in their work," says Veracode president and chief executive, Matt Moynahan.

Code from an open source e-mail extension created and designed by the French military is being used to power Thunderbird 3, reports TechRadar.

Two years ago France's Gendarmerie Nationale police, then part of the military, discovered that Mozilla's open source design let it build its own security extensions, something not then possible with Microsoft's proprietary software.

The French military uses Thunderbird for e-mail and uses its TrustedBird extension on 80 000 computers throughout a number of government ministries, in spite of initial resistance against moving away from companies that could offer full technical support. TrustedBird has also supplied some of the code for Thunderbird 3.