[RndTbl] pitty the Royal Navy

[John Lange]

A significant portion of the US military warships run on a Windows based
operating system as well.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,13987,00.html

I believe the goal is to have them all converted at some point in a
program called "Smart Ship" (GOOGLE!)

I would assume that the same company provides the systems for both the
US and British Navy since allies often share technology.

What worries me isn't so much the choice of operating system but rather
the monolithic nature of it. What I mean is, the two largest military
powers in the world, who also happen to be our allies, are running the
same systems. A single flaw could them all out. A real possibility since
they are all connected via a world wide WAN. The same applies regardless
of which OS you choose.

Its also worth noting that NT has its security certification (I forget
what that is called) and Linux does not. I believe some progress is
being made towards Linux getting the same certification.

Given the above, Windows was really the only available choice for an
"off the shelf" solution.

Also keep in mind that this software project was started in the mid to
late 90s. Linux wasn't even on the radar then, not even super-secret
military satellite radar ;)

Regards,

John Lange

On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 09:19, ed orphan wrote:
> According to today's BBC ( June 10, 2004 ), the
> new Type 45 "stealth" destroyers, which are to "provide
> the future backbone of the Royal Navy" are to
> be "controlled by state-of-the-art computers using
> a Windows NT operating system."
> BAE Systems is to have the first one launched in
> September 2007. A price of  $ 3.6 billion is stated,
> but its not made clear if that's for all 26 of them,
> or just one. I suspect its for just one. Either way,
> it's good money pissed away. Windows NT !
> These things will be a menace to everyone, including
> their own crews. 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
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