Comment Re:Contract Details (Score 1) 192
Ah....how come companies world-wide rely on MS Malware? Because it does what they need it to do. Yes, it is inelegant, yes it is buggy, yes it is a pile of insecurity that could knock a dead buzzard off a shitwagon at 20 paces. Until recently, there's never really been an alternative. Much of the military is doing the usual kinds of things it takes to keep a large organization functioning, i.e., payroll, retirement plans, accounting, etc.
Wot? That's not related to national security? Yes, it is. That's what it takes to make a large organization into a functioning large organization. And given the size and scope of the weapons systems they must buy (hint, they stopped making their own stuff years and years ago), you wouldn't want it any other way. They are only now getting to where they can produce an audit of their financials.
Wot? They didn't have auditing until now? Nope, they had the same mentality you do. This is the military, they could just whack together systems right? But now they have a new problem. In the past, they were a big enough market unto themselves they could pretty much define what companies will build for them. No longer. The military is not a large enough market for most companies, if they are going to build something, they need to sell it outside the military as well. So, now take Congressional mandates into the equation where product providers cannot be shown preference. How do you get software for over 1 million people? You cannot farm it out to several companies, the software won't work together. By the time you get the software, install it, train people, and use it, you have a large sunk cost. Redoing that every 5-10 years is beyond expensive.