Security by obscurity is the weakest form.

Everyone loves this phrase but it's far from a universal truth. Sure, it applies to shipped software, but I'm not sure that it applies to military hardware. Regardless, you really think that military hardware should be open sourced?

First of all, the GP comment was talking about software, not hardware.

Something made by the military to be consumed by only them probably doesn't need to be open sourced. Same thing as if you write a program for yourself that only you use. Once something is intended to be consumed by the public, it should absolutely be open sourced. Voting machine software, tax filing software, etc.

What about software that simulates hardware? That's a thing.

I agree though, I just don't think it's an absolute rule. Voting machines and other stuff that the public uses probably should be.

Just because military software isn't released publicly, doesn't mean it shouldn't be open source (the OSI definition, not the "public source" definition).

One counterexample - changing SSH port from default one reduces login attempts by 99.999%. I can go on :)

Yes, if someone is after you specifically it won’t help, but you avoid automated stuff.

and why avoiding such automated stuff is good?

Absolutely.

Could you explain your reasoning?

Taxpayers money pays for a huge amount of defense industry software development.

Sounds circular.

- All taxpayer funded sw should be open source

- what about defense?

- yes

- why?

- because it's taxpayer funded

> I used to work in defense, should that software be open source?

Software that is used internally and not distributed need not be free software. That was not my point.

That said, I do work in defense now (writing software for a defense partner that finances the research of my lab) and the contract requires that all our production be published under an open source license. Only the data is secret, and we don't really get to see most of it.

When you say "published", do you mean released publicly on GitHub or just released to the defense partner?

If you mean the OSD/FSD definition of open source, yes. The military should have access to the source code for the software it is running on the devices it owns/uses. If you mean "public source" then thats a bit more murky.