29-10-2003 07:26									#1
	Ops, the US Army joins the swelling Linux ranks Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

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

quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:31									#2
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Who's the evil OS now?

	29-10-2003 07:34									#4
	Re: Ops, the US Army joins the swelling Linux ranks Suffering from ads?

quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:36									#5
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Linux is open source, which means the army can customise it much much more than they could do with Windows.

...

	29-10-2003 07:36									#6
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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?

	29-10-2003 07:38									#7
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quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:39									#8
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Oh, well, who says the Army ever had to do anything it promised to?

	29-10-2003 07:42									#9
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quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:42									#10
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quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:43									#11
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I think the Lt. Col. is talking out of his ass. Seems that somebody let a pesky Linux zealot infront of a microphone.

quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:45									#12
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quote: 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.

	29-10-2003 07:50									#13
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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.

	29-10-2003 15:19									#14
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weekly linux zealot cheerleader "so and so adopted linux" article

	30-10-2003 19:10									#15
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quote: 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...

	30-10-2003 21:00									#16
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US Army has always a tendency to go for the lowest bidder. Expensive stuffs may be not good, but cheap stuffs are never good.

	30-10-2003 21:31									#17
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I can't really see the military using Linux for anything important. My buddy used to be a programmer for the Air Farce back in the late 80s, and every change to the software had to come through a serious security check. It was very bureaucratic and made for a very kludgy system. Not that he was all that upset, since, IHO, anything which might forestall the use of his system was a good thing, seeing as he was working on nukes.

	01-11-2003 11:39									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Asher 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.

According to Microsoft, that is.

	01-11-2003 11:55									#19
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Oh, I forgot. It never happened then.

Oh how nice it must be to live in your own little dream world so consistently.

We all love your weekly "so and so now uses Linux" threads, but for every "so and so now uses Linux" threads you could probably have 50 or 60 "so and so buys Windows 2003".

	01-11-2003 15:16									#20
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Let's all welcome Asher . Let's also not reply to his trolls , and ignore them if we want his thread to sanely continue , and not turn to a flame fest .

Last edited by aneeshm on 01-11-2003 at 15:31

	01-11-2003 15:21									#21
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Oh come now Aneeshm.
UR obviously created this as a troll to bait Asher.
It's not quite Ashers fault if he turns it into a counter-troll.

	01-11-2003 15:28									#22
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I repeat , I said that we not respond to his trolls . I'm perfectly willing to debate any points of argument he may have . Implying that some people live in a dream world is a troll , IMO . And it is my intention to warn other , unsuspecting posters not to flame in response . I'm sorry if I got a little carried away . I'll edit out some parts .

"We all love your weekly "so and so . . . . . " is also a semi-troll , too , if we look carefully .

	01-11-2003 16:56									#23
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quote: Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar Oh come now Aneeshm. UR obviously created this as a troll to bait Asher. It's not quite Ashers fault if he turns it into a counter-troll.

It was?

Surely I hope you have some evidence to back yourself up, comrade.

	01-11-2003 16:58									#24
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quote: Originally posted by Asher We all love your weekly "so and so now uses Linux" threads, but for every "so and so now uses Linux" threads you could probably have 50 or 60 "so and so buys Windows 2003".

I love to see you get 50 or 60 organisations the size of the US Army. Or perhaps the PRC?

I eagerly await your statistics.

	01-11-2003 18:23									#25
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quote: It was? Surely I hope you have some evidence to back yourself up, comrade.

you're soooo full of ****, UR. This thread has "Asher-bait" written all over it.

	01-11-2003 18:26									#26
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Honestly I can't see Linux reaching wide spread use in the Army if for no other reason then the fact that Officers are in general too stupid to figure it out. It's hard enough getting them to understand Windows, I should know being in communications in a brigade headquarters. The hell that would unleashed on my commo shop from ignorant officers just starting to use linux would be downright scary I personally love Linux but I don't think it's designed as a system for people who don't want to think, such as too much of the army refuses to do.

	01-11-2003 19:11									#27
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quote: Originally posted by Azazel quote: It was? Surely I hope you have some evidence to back yourself up, comrade. you're soooo full of ****, UR. This thread has "Asher-bait" written all over it.

I have been merely adding slowly to the evidence to back up my assertion of the "Linux Domino hypothesis." Sure, it did appeared to be that Glonkie would post his own "rebuttals" almost certainly, but it was never intended to be a flame bait.

	01-11-2003 19:18									#28
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quote: Originally posted by Thucydides Honestly I can't see Linux reaching wide spread use in the Army if for no other reason then the fact that Officers are in general too stupid to figure it out.

It's not that hard to use after being properly installed and configured. It's the same point-n-click GUI.

	01-11-2003 20:16									#29
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quote: I have been merely adding slowly to the evidence to back up my assertion of the "Linux Domino hypothesis." Sure, it did appeared to be that Glonkie would post his own "rebuttals" almost certainly, but it was never intended to be a flame bait.

Who else would care about such a thing but Asher?

	01-11-2003 20:26									#30
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The army is quite potentially the most assinine organization on the planet. Thier switching to Linux for a single system is not particularly good evidence for the superiority of that OS. I think that it's fair to say that the best indicator for where the army is headed techwise is the special forces group, and they are currently using Dell PCs loaded with Windows.