Red Hat Wins In US Army Contract For Linux Devices

zonker writes "This article at C|Net says the army is going to try an embedded version of Linux to use on portable vehicle diagnosis devices. Red Hat got the contract. Here is an article at Red Hat's site." Not a huge deal fiscally, but this is one of the areas where Linux is probably going to grow the most - hence companies like Lineo and others like them.

Finally the US Army will be able to defeat...

their mortal enemy, the US Navy!

I'll drink to that!

Hooray for Linux

I dont particularly care for Redhat but the entire decision can be summed up in this paragraph:

``We've tried more traditional PC operating systems in the past for similar embedded appliances, but they were prone to instability, high power requirements, and heat dissipation problems'' said Steve May, Rymic president. ``Red Hat's Clinux provides us with an inherently stable solution that monitors vehicles' performances in real time; because Clinux is open source software, costly per-unit license fees are eliminated.''

To be honest it dosent matter that it's Redhat I'm just glad to see Linux get marketshare and more importantly mindshare.

Linux advocates recruited by army.

US military to deploy linux enthusiasts against hostile powers
WASHINGTON D.C. In a landmark victory for the renegade OS, the United States Army has changed its recruitment and training procedures in order to make military service more attractive to Linux Users.
"We're going all out to get as many of these penguin people into the ranks as we possibly can." Stated General Jack Ripper "These geeks truly are americas finest."
The military became interested in geek warriors after observing multiple flame wars on the popular web site slashdot.org. "We used to think that the Army Rangers were the meanest mothers on earth, then we watched KDE and Gnome users face off." Explained Gen. Ripper. "We then had an elite team of rangers engage in the discussion. When I saw those hardened troops break down in tears from the geek onslaught, I knew we had found the perfect source of violent maladjusted zealots."
Assimilating the new geek recruits required something of a change in the standard training regimen. Instead of boot camp, recruits are now put through reboot camp where they are forced to support mission critical applications on Windows98. This teaches them to hate. Recruits are then put through what is known as the 'burma road' drill - where they attempt to stay abreast of the most recent 2.3.x kernel using a 486sx/25 for compiles and a 1200 baud modem for downloads. After a few short weeks, the perfect killing machine is created. Geek troops are capable of untold attrocities in combat, including roasting prisoners over an overclocked celeron, installing MS Bob on enemy hardware and moderating down 'first posts.'
"Some governments have complained that these troops don't abide by the geneva convention." Admitted Gen. Ripper "But I say that the geneva convention is a closed, proprietary protocol funded by Microsoft - screw em."
--Shoeboy
Don't moderate me because I'm beautiful.

Re:I'm quite surprised, actually.

just because the device runs an open-sourced OS does NOT mean that it cannot be modified by a third party and not distributed. They can do whatever they like to the OS and keep it to themselves.

I would assume that the per-license fees are important here, god only knows how many devices they are going to build, but I wouldn't be able to say that that is the only reason.

I am very intrigued to see this happen, but not very surprised. Maybe the US is worried that Bill Gates is going to take over afterall ;-)

Re:Ethical clause

I can understand your reluctance to write code that might be used for military purposes. It is common for a creator of technology to express horror at the ends to which his invention has been put--Robert Openheimer and Alfred Nobel were notable examples.

Although the Nuremberg trials imprisoned and condemned many persons whoseroles were obfuscated and nebulized by layers of bureacracy, these persons were both aware of the ends to which their efforts were put. Companies that supplied mass crematorium ovens to the various death camps were aware of the purpose of this equipment, and cooperated in installation, design, and production.

I so not mean to accuse the US military of war crimes-- but it is possible that any (para)military force deploying Linux software will use them in manner that it is morally repugnent to any number of Linux contributors.

It is certainly possible to use GPG (or like crytography software) in the commission of morally indefensible acts. Indeed, cryptographic software is regarded as a dual use device, that could be used as a munition.

MAny of the philosphers of free software would argue against moral restrictions on use. Stallman, and the Gnu project argue that one cannot morally impose restrictions on the use of software-- but only on the distribution and modification of it. And Bruce Perens has argues that the APSL munitiobns clause is difficult to justify.

If you wantto maorraly restrict use, don't use GPL.

Re:No binary.. no source..

Actually since they are selling the binaries they have to have the source readily available. But where's the source?

You missed the point. Since they didn't sell YOU a binary, nobody has to give YOU the source. If you buy their binary, you get the source. You could also get the source from someone who bought it.. but nothing says they have to give it to you unless they agree to sell or provide a binary to you. GPL is no guarantee of access, and hence free as in speech is not free as in beer, a point that escapes many here.