Comments on: Federal agencies ban Windows Vista
Concerns about compatibility and other issues move DOT and NIST to prohibit upgrades to Vista, Office 2007 and IE 7, for now anyway.
Most Popular
Latest tech news headlines
- Android and iPhone users not so different after all
December 28, 2009 6:10 PM PST
- 10 music-tech trends that will shape the next decade
December 28, 2009 6:00 PM PST
- AT&T resumes online iPhone sales in NY
December 28, 2009 2:39 PM PST
- See all headlines
RSS Feeds
Add headlines from CNET News to your homepage or feedreader.
More feeds available in our RSS feed index.
- Markets
Related quotes
Whoa, headrush man.
The Army announced today that it would be switching over a
battalion in the 1st Infantry Division to operate entirely on the
Macintosh OSX platform.
"Our goal is to become better, faster, and pack more of a punch.
Basically, we want to think different," said Brigadier General
Oscar Trent. "We're confident that the new software will enhance
both the combat effectiveness of this mechanized division, as
well as improve field conditions for our soliders."
Today's mechanized infantry battalions routinely depend on
computers for command and control, individual vehicle and
weapon systems control, and counterintelligence, among other
things. The Army has been struggling for years with the Cold
War era system of contracting, under which each device or
system had software separately contracted and coded.
Consequently, there are over 243,000 programs to run a typical
armored unit, most of which are catastrophically incompatible
with each other.
"Part of the problem, too, is the increasing level of sophistication
expected of the average solider," said retired general and Watley
Review commentator Arnold Frumm. " Let's face it, most people
with good computer skills don't sign up for four-year stints
carrying 80 pounds of gear through the deserts of Afghanistan.
Expecting these young men and women to cope with separate
software platforms for their night vision goggles, their GPS units,
and their MRE self-heating systems is a bit much."
The military has made previous attempts to adopt off-the-shelf
software, most infamously when the Navy installed Windows 95
on an aircraft carrier battle group. In 1999, fifteen destroyers,
along with the nuclear carrier U.S.S. Nimitz, spent an
uncomfortable four days drifting near the Arctic circle as they
combated the "blue screen of death." Another attempt to save
money, by installing Outlook Express, caused the Pentagon's
intranet to implode under a storm of viruses within six hours of
installation.
"The Macs are less unstable," said Trent, "and having access to
iPods will mean soldiers can dispense with those damn boom
boxes." This will reduce the amount of gear which the soliders
carry by at least 20 pounds.
Copyright © The Watley Review, all rights reserved.
Army uses Macs. Right?
Here is another version of the same article
http://www.watleyreview.com/2003/072203-3.html
Now, if you meant to post that as a joke, then that's alright. You
should have indicated it was a piece of humorous fiction though.
" I wanted high-speed systems that could handle any application
we needed, keep the site available 24 hours a day, not be
vulnerable to every passing virus, and fend off hackers without
my staff having to spend all their time applying security patches
."
? Mark H. Wiggins, Lt. Col., U.S. Army, Ret. Former director,
www.army.mil
isn't very high. You do need something with decent I/O and fast
disk but most any system will give you that. Peronally, I wouldn't
use NT or any of its variants for a production server either. I
wouldn't use OS X though. For bulk data transfer servers I'd
probably use Linux 2.6.14+ because it has the fastest network
stack around right now. For application servers I'd probably use
OpenBSD or some variant of Solaris. However, that would
generaly be determined by the applications I need to serve. I
might use OS X in some instances but once you start getting into
a heterogeneous compute environment your support costs start
to balloon. As such, I'd probably compromise with Linux and
VMWare for apps that had to use a different OS.
Apple sent us a stack of X Servers a couple of years ago to do
some development/testing work on. Decent machines but the
Linux boxes had, for our application at least, better
performance. I'm still happy Apple sent us those boxes though.
Apple Megapatch Plugs 45 Security Holes
http://news.com.com/Apple+megapatch+plugs+45+security+holes/2100-1002_3-6166971.html?tag=nefd.pulse
Umm...consumers are forced to buy Vista b/c MS showed it down their throats(and probably paid a nice sum for phasing out XP). Just look around the web, from Toshiba to Dell XP systems are scarce.
Gregg Keizer
March 15, 2007 (Computerworld)
Wilkes University announced yesterday that it has pulled the
plug on PCs in favor of Macs, saying the move -- which actually
began last year -- will save the Pennsylvania liberal arts college
more than $150,000 while still letting students and faculty
continue to run Windows applications.
Touted as one of the first colleges to mandate a campuswide
shift from Windows PCs to Macs, the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., school
wasn't a bastion of all things Apple before the decision, said
Scott Byers, vice president for finance and the head of campus
IT. Macs, in fact, were a minority.
Rather than take bids from the usual PC suspects (Dell Inc. and
Hewlett-Packard Co.) as well as Macs, Wilkes decided to go all-
Apple because the new Intel-based models and the BootCamp
dual-boot software -- the Apple Inc. software is still in beta --
would let the school reduce the number of machines
campuswide. "This is an aggressive technology refresh," Byers
said.
"We'll be able to reduce the number by about 250" across the
campus, said Byers, because labs and classrooms were typically
outfitted with an inefficient PC-Mac mix. A class suitable for 30,
for instance, might be equipped with 20 PCs and 20 Macs,
"because each class and each department had its own preference
for what computers and what software they liked to use," Byers
said.
Now, that class boasts 30 Macs, able to swing both ways at will,
courtesy BootCamp.
"We think it will save $150,000 directly, in buying fewer units,
even though the Macs cost more per unit than PCs," he said. The
school, which enrolls about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate
students, will reduce its inventory from nearly 1,700 computers
to around 1,450 after the changeover. Other costs savings,
however, will be harder to measure. "By standardizing, the IT
department should be more productive," Byers said.
He also cited the additional security of Mac OS X, schoolwide
access to Apple's iLife suite, and Apple's operating system itself
as side benefits. "It is, well, the superior OS, isn't it?" said Byers,
who before the switch was a dyed-in-the-wool Windows user.
The key to the change was Apple's move to the Intel processor in
early 2006 and the dual-boot BootCamp application. The
university's management application, which tracks students from
application through graduation, is a Windows app, for instance,
and couldn't be abandoned. With BootCamp, such a move isn't
necessary.
Although the $1.4 million three-year switch -- which started
last year with the purchase of approximately 500 Macs -- means
Wilkes is all-Apple, students are free to choose any operating
system, said Byers. "There's no Mac mandate."
Most of them pick one anyway: "This generation seems to prefer
Macs," he added.
A lot of people flame Microsoft about Lawsuits etc and actually forget that in the time of IE4, it was the BEST product! Same with Microsoft Java, and yet the lawsuits had to spoil the party :@
besides I turn off updates so it doesnt bother me :p
Linux is coming up very strong. By the time you want to move your company from XP, Linux might be a better solution then Vista. Do not forget that IPv6 will be knocking on the door.
+ Mac OSX on ONE computer!
www.apple.com/macosx
You will have both worlds on the same hardware, available simultaneously. Later, you decide what to do, without any haste. You may end up maintaining this setup even after XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.
I will get it when....
a-- an application I run ONLY runs under Visa
b-- I must buy a CPU and only VISTA cpus exist in the world to run the applications I need.
I did the same for earlier MS OS's , 3.1, 95, 98 and XP , not buying them until well into its product cycle and it minimized LOADS of compatiblity problems.
- Disgruntled & Unhappy
- by Pamkins June 14, 2007 6:09 PM PDT
- I changed over to Vista Home Premium only to find that none of my printers will work, let alone my scanner. And if I wanted to get a new printers, how do I know whether it will work. I'm totally disgusted at the greed and control of Microsoft (Mr. Gates). Hasn't he got enough money to cut a bit of slack for the those who struggle and have to fork out huge amounts of money to keep Microsoft afloat. I know one thing for sure. There is no way he will EVER be able to enter heaven until he starts changing his heart motives and attitudes and take on a giving heart and make allowances for those who struggle. Yeah, and also that he lays down his life. Yeah right! Can't see that happening.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 2 of 2 pages (115 Comments)