Ops, the US Army joins the swelling Linux ranks

[Urban Ranger]

US Army 'going to Linux' after OS switch for GI PDA

The US Army has abandoned Windows and chosen Linux for a key component of its "Land Warrior" programme, according to a report in National Defense Magazine. The move, initially covering a personal computing and communications device termed the Commander's Digital Assistant (CDA), follows the failure of the previous attempt at such a device in trials in February of this year, and is part of a move to make the device simpler and less breakable.

According to program manager Lt Col Dave Gallop this is part of a broader move towards Linux by the US Army: "Evidence shows that Linux is more stable. We are moving in general to where the Army is going, to Linux-based OS." The trials of the earlier version, at Hunter Airfield in Georgia, showed it exceeding the permitted one mission failure per 158 hours, not having sufficient battery life and having its communications obstructed by trees. The latter objection seems a little harsh to us, given that trees are pretty hardware- and OS-agnostic, but what do we know?

[Emphasis my own]

Microsoft PR is one thing, reality is another. THere is nothing like having a better product.

[General Ludd]

Who's the evil OS now?

[Urban Ranger]

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: Ops, the US Army joins the swelling Linux ranks

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
US Army 'going to Linux' after OS switch for GI PDA



[Emphasis my own]

Microsoft PR is one thing, reality is another. THere is nothing like having a better product.

Reality, for those within a hundred or so miles of it, is that the US Army's approach to any IT project is abysmal, and the endorsement by the Army of anything as superior technology should in fact be it's kiss of death.

[mrmitchell]

Linux is open source, which means the army can customise it much much more than they could do with Windows.

...

[Asher]

Didn't the US Army place the biggest order in MS' history a few months ago, upgrading hundreds of thousands of PCs to Windows XP?

[Asher]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Linux is open source, which means the army can customise it much much more than they could do with Windows.

...

Provided they give everyone else the modified source code who asks for it -- somehow I doubt that's what the Army has in mind. The last thing they wanna do is spend a lot of money R&Ding modifications to Linux only to have them legally forced to give them to, say, China.

[mrmitchell]

Oh, well, who says the Army ever had to do anything it promised to?

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by Asher
Didn't the US Army place the biggest order in MS' history a few months ago, upgrading hundreds of thousands of PCs to Windows XP?

In addition, Linux is free, so you could say they're cutting costs.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Asher
Didn't the US Army place the biggest order in MS' history a few months ago, upgrading hundreds of thousands of PCs to Windows XP?

Since the Army (let alone the entire DoD) doesn't have hundreds of thousands of PCs, I doubt it. They buy a lot of stuff from MS, but Army IT is fragmented from PC's to proprietary crap nobody ever heard of to IBM System 34's and everywhere in between. They probably will underwrite the development of ADA.NET, though.

[Asher]

I think the Lt. Col. is talking out of his ass. Seems that somebody let a pesky Linux zealot infront of a microphone.

According to program manager Lt Col Dave Gallop this is part of a broader move towards Linux by the US Army: "Evidence shows that Linux is more stable. We are moving in general to where the Army is going, to Linux-based OS."

Of course! That explains why they just signed a 6-year contract with MS worth half a billion dollars, and putting Windows on 494,000 computers.

[Asher]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Since the Army (let alone the entire DoD) doesn't have hundreds of thousands of PCs, I doubt it.

You'd have to take that up with the Army then, they seem to think they have 494,000 PCs that need Windows, 10,000 servers that need Windows Server, and 5,000 exchange servers.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Something's a bit bogus about their numbers - unless they're also providing licenses for contractors, and/or present and future computers, or for some reason buying licences for computers they don't have yet (or ever).

10,000 servers and 5,000 licenses for exchange server isn't off the mark.

A PC for every knuckledragger, let alone every REMF, is off the mark.

[Ted Striker]

weekly linux zealot cheerleader "so and so adopted linux" article

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by Asher Provided they give everyone else the modified source code who asks for it -- somehow I doubt that's what the Army has in mind. The last thing they wanna do is spend a lot of money R&Ding modifications to Linux only to have them legally forced to give them to, say, China.

That is, in case China already has received the binaries through legal means...