To me, this speaks volumes of Linux as a choice for government agencies. If Red Hat is good enough for the US DOD, then I think it is definitely good enough for the rest of us as well.

The Defense Department has renewed a major contract to use security software now sold by Red Hat, CNET News.com has learned.

The department’s Defense Information Systems Agency agreed Monday to purchase subscriptions for Red Hat Certificate System software, Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day confirmed Friday. The deal renews support for software that was sold by America Online’s Netscape Communications group until Red Hat acquired it in December.

August Schell, a computing services company in Rockville, Md., made the sale to the Defense Department. It’s the only company authorized to resell the software to the federal government. The company’s chief executive, Bill Schell, said he employs some of the original Netscape programmers who began working on the Defense Department project when it was a pilot, in 1998.

The software is used to issue digital credentials, called certificates, that help identify people and computing equipment such as workstations and network routers, Schell said. The certificates are included in each Defense Department employee’s digital ID card, used to gain access to buildings or computers, he said. [Read the rest]