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I am not that surprised, just look at their fearless (or clueless) leader.

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How would he affect day-to-day operations?

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This is really funny in light of Windows XP pgoing EOL at the end of the year. Not to mention the steaming pile that is Windows Vista, MS' replacement for XP.

If they had any sense at all they would be migrating to Linux, where practical, not the other way.

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Amen to that.

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Not unexpected. You can't get a linux desktop system onto the Navy Marine Corps Internet (NMCI) system. Linux is used as a server in some places.

What do you expect when they don't' recognize how their security setup is? You have developers on NMCI that need to two computers to do their work. One is the NMCI windows system and the linux development systems are off the network. Need to look something up, pray that you can swivel around and use your desktop system.

I know of developers who have linux installed on gov't paid for laptops so that they can take them home to access source code repositories. It's a really screwed up system.

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Please tell me more about this, by email, if you prefer: joebarr at linux dot com.

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Nothing goes onto a machie without their approval. Linux boxes are special circumstances and they definitely don't go onto a desktop machine. Here's just one website that I picked out. If you need the to do on your machine that doesn't meet the approval list, don't expect it to run on one that is connected to the network. It has to be a separate box.

As far as the security comment that I made mention of earlier. I meant to imply the reason why they're having so many problems with breaks within the gov't is because of their homogenity of the OS. I have no information as to breakins other than what has been reported in the news.

http://www.nmci-eds.com/supplier/cert.asp

Here's a quote:

Regardless of type, all software within NMCI must be certified. Software certification refers to the process by which applications/systems are determined or made to be compatible with the NMCI network and its information assurance infrastructure. NMCI certification is a matter of functional interoperability, within NMCI information assurance constraints, of the application on an NMCI desktop. Interoperability is based on the NMCI Rule Set. The NMCI Rule Set tests for the following criteria:

Windows 2000 (W2K) or XP compatible

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A couple years ago, while I was in the Marine Corps, several IT shops kept running with unmanaged non-NMCI servers (including Linux and whatever the hell else they needed) as a "Legacy Enclave" or something similar. Inflexibility of server options and high price of NMCI managed servers eventually drove the construction of a few new large data centers to host "Legacy" applications.



Anyway, the Marine Corps wasn't at all willing to drop everything and convert to Windows, so they spent their own money to build their own data centers and probably let NMCI move into the old ones. NMCI for the most part only took over desktop support/deployment and just our exchange and fileservers. Win-win, we consolidated our own gear, and Marines aren't punished by managing exchange ;)

I imagine any department of the government will end up doing about the same when faced with these lame IT management deals.
Also, you're lucky, many people have to work with up to three seperate desktops due to security reasons, but two are not uncommon in certain areas even before NMCI.

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status quo. it's sad that our gov officials are adept at ignorance, not common sense...

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Considering just how INSECURE an XP box is, let alone a Vista box (I'm having to do a forensic job on a brand-spanking new Vista box and then doing a burn-down, install Linux job on the same probably over the weekend...) I'm appalled. But have faith gang...there may be a new Marshall in town that they'll listen to and they'll at least have the wisdom to use Solaris if not Linux on things in a short time.

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This is VERY suprsising. I worked for the naval contractor a few years ago. They were moving to linux because it was truly open, and the word came down from above. They are sick and tired of their OSes becoming obsolete, no matter what it is. Linux was the only way for them to have true control of the platform.

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rumor - nothing more

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Really doesn't tell you why does it? Why bother with a headline that is incomplete and a waste of reading space.

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If the only news articles ever printed included an explanation as to 'why', we would never see 99% of the news.

In this article, neither Lockheed nor the Corps of Engineers have been forthcoming with a 'why'. What is the writer supposed to do, read their minds? The writer, however, did hint at guess as to 'why' by including the information that this decision comes a year after Lockheed was contracted by the US government to 'help' with the management of IT issues for the Corps.

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In the meanwhile, let me quote <a href=http://www.airliners.net/discussions/military/read.main/52252/1/#95>airliners.net</a> folks:

The Soviet government put political officers onboard their bombers when it became apparent that Soviet bomber crews were waving to the US and UK pilots that intercepted them. Their job was to ensure that no member of the crew responded in a 'nice' way to western pilots.

So the US and UK pilots decided to make them work for their money. They would approach the bomber from the back, wave to the rear gunner, and watch until the political officer appeared in a window at the back. Then they would accellerate to the front of the bomber, wave at the pilots and wait, then drop back and wave again at the rear gunner. Wash, rinse and repeat.

I guess these political officers later went on to compete at the Olympics as Soviet 100 meter sprinters.

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My father worked as an road engineer for the US Forest Service for nearly 30 years. Some of the stories he told me about the leadership within the US Army Corps of Engineers were pretty heinous... and this was stuff from the 70's and 80's. According to him, they had one of the weirdest internal bureaucracies of any governmental agency he'd ever dealt with, and coming from a USFS guy, thats saying something..

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Why would they do this? Easy. There is big money in system conversions. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to spread money around. A base near my house (Texas) decided to convert some Linux boxen to XP. The contractors were told it was because 'Linux is not secure enough.' hahahahaha. True story.

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I was in IT for a good many years at USACE. I can see why Linux can't be used there. Upgrades and support are done at Admin level. I can't imagine trying to keep thousands of computers running when everyone is off trying new distros, software, betas. When I left the push was on to make all the computers like terminals, leaving nothing to the user.
Downsizing and competitive bidding has virtually gutted the Corps, and especially the IT sections. When you go from 45 people supporting a district of 3500 to 5 people in IT you just
can't individually support every user. Windows or Linux, when users have any control at all they will eventually need tech support, and when the closest support is a call center hundreds of miles away production will be lost. So everyone jumps through the same hoop. If you're interested, check out some of the district web sites. Notice how they all look alike? Nothing individual, nothing imaginative. Cookie cutter pages.

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No surprise...... its the same type of genius that brought us 100 year dikes in New Orleans. I wonder how long it will be before foreign agents hack the Corps's wonderfully secure Window's XP machines, and learn how to control the floodgates. I thought you needed a college degree to run the Corp? Is linux that hard? Grade school kids are using it, why can't government engineers?

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I realize that every governmental bureaucracy runs its own show, but considering the heavy investment in constructive solid geometry modeling code that will only run on *nix based system (See http://brlcad.sourceforge.net - ranked in the top 100 sourceforge projects) which was developed at the Army Research Laboratories, I would be surprised if the Army Corps of Engineers would be giving up their *nix boxes. I suspect that brlcad would be very useful to that bunch. Perhaps it's the one program that they are keeping around and that will run on Solaris?

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Linux is not meant as a tool for liers and murderers.

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It really doesnt surprise me that even the U.S.A Army Corps of Engineers is switching to lunix!!! To be honest I really think microsoft does have a sorry OS called "Vista"!!! It made me laugh when a Vista box crashed because i tried to install Microsoft office 2004, there both microsoft!!!! Yet the compatibility is like water and oil. Lunix does solve sulitions that Microsofts OS has especially the new al-mighty Vista. For Example: COST! :( ! Uupgrades, Compatibility...ECT. The list is grows as u use microsoft OS's more and more!!! In the end it is'nt worth anything when it comes to Microsoft except stocks!!!

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Uhm re-read the headline genius,... they're uninstalling all the Linux boxes.
And its Linux not LUnix,... LUnix is an experimental UNIX-like system for the Commador 64/128

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http://www.linux.com/feature/119106

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They are afraid that it will cost too much to re train their people....I wonder who is worrying about the money the Corps or the Politicos???

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This is a typical example of our governments inability to adapt, Spend more and give us less. Really helps me feel secure to know a branch of our military and one of the cutting edge defense contractor will be less secure than my desktop.

Good going guys, just give the towel heads a cat 5 port and the passwords.

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