US Army Signs $471,000,000 Deal for Microsoft Software 1260
zero_offset writes "According to this article at Yahoo, Microsoft will provide software for 494,000 Army computers during the next six years. At roughly $950 per computer this clearly involves more than just the OS, although the article unfortunately doesn't provide details, and I was unable to find any references to this on the Microsoft website." The great things about this deal: the Army is going through a reseller, when clearly they have the purchasing power to buy direct; and most of the computers they purchase are normal consumer machines which will be purchased with Windows and Office already installed, so the Army will be paying twice for each machine.
Yeah Buddy! (Score:3, Funny)
And if the US was a country that didn't pander to corperate intrests, the headline would read,
"US Army Signs $0 Deal for Linux Software"
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
PS: When it was mentioned that these machines came with Windows already install and they were essentially paying for it twice the government agent said somjething like "Well we have to wipe these machines and re-install for security reasons, so that existing copy doesn't really count".
Nobody's that stupid right? So it HAS to be corruption. Makes me sick.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole reason for this being, if they don't spend their entire budget one year, they will get cut the next...
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but I have a valid reason.
I.. uh... umm...
If I used lynx, I wouldn't see Slashdot's ads, and would be circumventing the system, Which would not only be a violation of the DCMA, but would also..
I give up. Revoke my Slashdot card.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:4, Funny)
(pulling out a cheese grater)
But I haven't gotten one yet...
rats....
Re:Anyone here use Win for anything other than gam (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anyone here use Win for anything other than gam (Score:5, Insightful)
Work.
Re:Anyone here use Win for anything other than gam (Score:4, Funny)
Mozilla has popup blocking, tabbed browsing, and most important of all: mouse gesture controls. That's right, you can do everything one-handed
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Funny)
No, it would read US Army signs $0 Deal for Linux software if we wanted our soldiers to "RTFM, j00 n00b l4m3r" instead of, say, killing people and breaking things.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:3, Funny)
Haven't you seen the commercial? All army people do is sit around and beat 14 year olds at video games.
(This comment would have been much better had I remembered the name of the game in the commercial.)
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:4, Funny)
-T
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Funny)
You know, this story didn't really make sense to me until I read that. If your task is to kill people and break things, Windows is clearly the OS for you.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Funny)
Does the BSOD count as friendly fire?
What are you, kidding? The contract strictly stipulates that all BSODs are to be characterized as training incidents.
alternately... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Informative)
FateCreatr, Out.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole US government is such a huge consumer of software, that they could save a tremendous amount of money by contracting with public universities to maintain their own Linux or BSD distro.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't use your $$$ you loose your $$$. If the US Army suddenly shifted to Linux, their budged would get massacred by congress.
Re:Yeah Buddy! (Score:5, Insightful)
You guys have to remember that there is a HUGE digital divide out there and getting soldiers with out much education comfortable with computers tends to be quicker and easier with Windows. This believe it or not does NOT boil down to money.
Neiter does my mom... (Score:5, Insightful)
So give them something that will kill them? (Score:5, Interesting)
Therefore you want to simplify the training by standardizing on a system which not only holds the record for security vulnerabilities, but whose source has been delivered to the electronic warfare departments of most of our potential enemies but NOT to our own academic-community security specialists?
What do you do the next time there's a conflict and some new crop of blended-threat self-propagating worms (locusts?) suddenly takes out the US Army's entire office infrastructure?
==============
While you're at it, why are you advocating depending on the NON-standardized training the recruits got as civilians rather than teaching them "The Army Way"? (But if you MUST, why not use a Windows-like interface and workalike basic apps, ala Lindows or KDE + OpenOffice, for the basic stuff? They have to learn the army-specific apps anyhow. Meanwhile there's a good chance the next crop of high-school students will be learning on open source platforms rather than Windows, due to developments already discussed on Slashdot.)
Re:uhhhh, open source can't be classified... (Score:5, Funny)
Or is that what they want us to beileve.
Paying twice? (Score:5, Informative)
I RTFA and I saw NO reference to anyone paying twice. The article does not state this deal is for the OS and office, so you, Michael, should not assume anyone is paying twice.
I know, I know. NO, I am not new here. Yes, I know
Re:Paying twice? (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you come up with a reasonable collection of Microsoft software that costs $950 per machine (on average)? I can't.
"Paying twice" seems like a pretty reasonable guess to me. That is, incidentally, also the situation in which many corporate customers are. Basically, the license you pay for with the machine doesn't quite cover eno
Re:Paying twice? (Score:4, Informative)
And the Microsoft subscription license requires you to purchase computers with Windows and Office AND subscribe to Windows and Office for that machine.
If you end the subscription license you not only loose the upgrade options etc but you also forfeit the use of the original OEM license!
For this reason we only purchase OEM copies of Windows and just leave them on the box it came with.
Re:Paying twice? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Paying twice? (Score:5, Insightful)
My parents came over and were somewhat surprised to find that I have FoxNews and the Christian channels blocked with the child filtering features of my satellite box. On the other hand none of the porn channels is blocked.
I explained this by saying I don't let offensive content in the house. I find biggotry and lies to be offensive.
What software? (Score:5, Informative)
Charles Di Bona, software analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in a research report that the contract would most likely add $16.6 million per quarter of "high-margin (in the range of 89 percent) revenues and add $0.001 per quarter to EPS."
What products make M$ *that* much profit? Windows and Office of course.
Let's see...if the Army is paying full retail (which I wouldn't doubt):
Microsoft Windows XP Professional: $299
Microsoft Office XP Professional: $449
Microsoft Visio Standard: $199
Total: $947
There's most likely your answer.
(Also, I happen to know that Visio Standard comes on the Army's standard build (a friend of mine worked for TACOM), so that's why picked it
It's obvious what software... (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
You are shitting me, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
They are site licensing the server products, almost the entire product line. Sharepoint, SQL Server, etc etc etc ad nauseaum.
Indeed, I feel ill. What exactly does all that shit provide that free software does not? Vendor lock-in? Great.
The details aren't being disclosed because MS doesn't want their other customers getting pissed at the ball breaking that the Army gave them
Nuts. I've never heard of a non-clasified public purchase with a NDA. It's my half a billion dollars, I want the details. Only crooks who sell crap have to hide their details. You would think they would be happy to give anyone buying half a million computers a similar deal.
There's no excuse for buing into more Microshit right now. Computer hardware has been more than adequate for general purpose desktop computing for the last six years. If the software those computers came with is no longer up to the task, I suggest looking at alternate software. There are a few other good American companies that could use this kind of shot in the arm but would provide a much better product:
We can be sure that Dell, Gateway, etc would be happy to work with any of the above software firms for this contract.
The fact of the matter is that the US Army took a half a million computer order and got themseves treated like some dinky midsized company with a thousand desktops. Next thing you know, they will be on the three year upgrade cycle [com.com]. They did it because they were told to do it that way or they were incompetent. Either way, it's un-fucking-forgivable. They have a whole, ummm, Army of technically qualified people!
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:3, Insightful)
They aren't a business. They can't afford to code up every little thing when they need it and they need to know that they can depend on somebody else to fix any problems that might come up. It's a variant of the "Who do you sue" problem. Microsoft's stuff is easily usable and ultimately gets the job done, which lets them focus on what's important.
I'd hate to think that our fighting forces are futzing around for weeks on end trying to figure out how to get fonts to anti-alias, let alone getting the whole "enterprise" to work. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional streamline enterprise activities.
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:4, Insightful)
'scuse me, but a company that makes it's own multi-million dollar AAA computer game
Not only that, but the armed forces
Furthermore, when you use these systems to deploy nukes and other highly damaging weapons, do you want a stable system or do you rely on windows?
And before you ask, yes, I'm running winXP, because it costs shit for me via the university and it's stable enough for me. It would be a different situation if I where directing lethal ordinance...but I'm not.
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Informative)
Man, the ignorance of
Trust me, Mr. Random Slashdot Microsoft Basher, the military is smarter than you when it comes to figuring out its software needs and how to use computers in warfighting. Please adjust your facile and wrongheaded criticisms accordingly.
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why does the Army need MS Office? The U.S. government went to a lot of trouble to define and adopt standards like SGML and POSIX -- only now to get locked into proprietary solutions from a criminal software house?
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Insightful)
What I find sad about this story is that a small injection of funding into the open source pool could have given comparable results, with the additional benefit that everyone would have an improved system to base on. The injection may have been as little as 10,000,000 US but it sure would have helped.
In a sense you are right -- MS offers seamless (at the UI level) integration, and they make damn sure that the GUI functions work (other stuff may be badly broken, but the "user experience" rules). Because these are among the LEAST important aspects of computing for most people who contribute to open software (my list has functionality, stability first; if you want it pretty, pay me, because I can live with text interfaces), it would take an external influence to improve these factors. And a cash payout would have worked.
What level of "enterprise" does Microsoft do well? A hint: they don't. It really is UI flash. MS operating systems don't support major transaction processing systems; they don't support major on-line bidding sites or email. We don't know if they scale well.
It's a sad story; let me call my broker and buy some more MS.
Ratboy.
Ask the USS Yorktown (Score:4, Funny)
So what if you have to call a tow truck [gcn.com] every once in a while..
Re:This doesn't strike me as unreasonable. (Score:5, Informative)
Given that they don't have enough people to fill the existing technical positions that they have open, how could they possibly expect to take on something like an OS switch without spending a lot more than half a billion dollars? They'd have to hire an outside contractor to help implement it. At least by buying Office they can havfe their existing techs support it.
Sounds.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Justice Department: Bad Microsoft.. you must pay $500 million and promise to never do it again.
Defense Deparment: Here Microsoft.. $471 million for you...
Right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing? Or does it?
$471,000,000?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$471,000,000?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:$471,000,000?!? (Score:5, Funny)
hmmm... wonder if this [microsoft.com] has anything to do with things:
Microsoft intruduces powerful-new military battle interface
"GI Bob" software to unify army command and control systems
REDMOND, Wash., May 23, 2003 -- American combat military personnel may get upgraded this year following Microsoft's release of a new battle user interface. The new product, Microsoft GI Bob for Windows, is based on the innovative user interface system initially released by Microsoft in 1993 to consumer sectors.
Featuring a powerful new intuition engine and updated interface, GI Bob represents common combat tasks in a easy-to-navigate windowpane, complete with the a refreshing new theme called QuansitHut(TM). Designed to simplify all aspects of military combat, experts acclaim GI Bob as an interface that "even a private from Arkansas could master," yielding strategic benefits to training and combat readiness requirements.
Within GI Bob, soldiers can access battlefield data by selecting convenient icons like Sgt. Carter's desk (for current tasks), file cabinet (for archived materials), a desktop radio (for communications) and other readily-identifiable items. With the updated VirtualPyle assistant, GI Bob's audiovisual experience is complete with voiceovers and animated interactions with the on-screen helper.
Microsoft GI Bob is available to authorized military purchasers and retails for $999. Contact your authorized Microsoft partner for details.
Is The OS Actually Included? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if this basically is some sort of site license for all MS products for the Army.
The Seattle PI has a little more (Score:4, Informative)
The article also says the US military seems to think Microsofts security problems were not significant enough to stop the deal.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/128059_msf
Re:The Seattle PI has a little more (Score:4, Interesting)
Welcome to the world of government contract$. (Score:5, Informative)
This was for a workgroup of 30 people.
Government contracts are the best.
- A.P.
I thought... (Score:4, Funny)
I was thinking, "Wow! Bill finally sold!"
And then, "Hmmm. They'll probably be enforcing those EULAs with an SKS muzzle in your mouth, now."
Minister M.S. (Score:3, Funny)
" Keith Hodson, a Microsoft spokesman, said the contract could help the Army reduce its costs and "validates the Army's belief in our security model.""
I guess the Iraqi information minister's initials being M.S. isn't a coincidence then - he appears to work for them
True cost... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the kids going into the army have some experience with computers: computers running Windows. The more familiar new recruits are with Army technology the less training will be required and the less time/resources/money need to be invested in getting newly enlisted GIs up to speed. The military is like a business in many ways. They write memos, reports, letters, make spreadsheets and send email. The most efficient way of getting all personel on the same page technologically is to deploy the "lowest common denominator". That is to say, software that is good enough and easy enough to use.
Yea, details not provided (Score:5, Insightful)
My suspicion is that there are enough details left out that the author and editor could print an alarmist article.
Further suspicion is that there are MANY MORE aspects of this contract tha have been conveniently, or ignorantly, omitted.
Little things, like perhaps Smartsoft has the better GSA rate for MS software than MS itself does? Maybe Smartsoft underbid their supplier and is providing professional services in addition to the software? Who knows, since no link to the contract award is provided and no refrence to what sort of purchase this "story" is referring, or avoiding to refer.
You guys see this all the time with the $2B/aircraft stories, that conveniently leave out all of the special tools and other pricy items that come along with each Squadron delivered with only the "journalist" obscuring the real cost of the airplane since those costs are published buy the GAO with regularity. How is this any different or even news?
Its 6 years folks. (Score:4, Insightful)
If this includes SQL, etc, all future releases, its likely a good deal as far as MS licensing costs go.
Someone's gotta do it... (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, someone had to. (yeah, the syllables don't match up...)
Uh oh.. It, uh, crashed.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't wait to see this. I'm not sure if the Army will be significant enough pressure to make m$ security better. In fact, they're a small piece in the bigger pie.
While this is probably cheaper than the defense departments $300 toilet seat vendors (hey, they probably at least had a backup toilet seat tho), it doesn't make too much sense to me. I'm reminded of the Navy vessel that crashed running NT [gcn.com].
Given that XP is still having issues with updates and such, I'm wondering what the Army was thinking. But then again, that is often the case..
Army of One... (Score:5, Funny)
Who's paying? (Score:4, Insightful)
Congratulations.
New attacking front (Score:5, Funny)
Military Analyists estimate Bin Laden will be bankrupted by the additional fees within 3 years.
Well goodbye and thanks for all the POSIX! (Score:4, Funny)
This makes no sense! (Score:4, Funny)
Taxes (Score:4, Insightful)
I read with humour, the angry pro MS crowd who regularly vent their anger here on
If your country ever does collapse, it will be because you have a government that thinks it can generate money from thin air, very much like the horde of dotbomb failures did.
A soldier's perspective (Score:5, Informative)
In my unit (B Co. 1/509th Abn.) we have I think 7 systems. They all run Windows 2000 and are connected to a network, through which we can access printers, other systems, and the Internet. You would be *amazed* at how many people come in a day with problems printing, getting the Internet to work, or just getting a certain program to run. You want infantrymen who at least have some familiarty with office and windows to try learning bash or mutt? It's all we can do to get all the systems functioning properly, with everyone remembering their passwords and able to get there damned email and print. If the Army mandated Linux, there would be a 4 week training program, after which chaos would ensue because 90% of the people still didn't understand it.
Your talking about people who have trouble checking email. Asking infantrymen to run linux as part of their work would be ludicrous at this point.
Re:A soldier's perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
If the army mandated a free operating system, they could modify the operating system to only provide the services that the army NEEDs. The problems you described do not happen with a properly configured system. If the system is setup correctly, the end user would not have the ability to make changes that would require downtime to fix. You have been trained by the Windows crowd to just accept downtime and failures as part of normal operation.
I would guess even someone in B. CO 1/509th Abn could figure out. No offence intended.
Re:A soldier's perspective (Score:5, Interesting)
Modified by whom? Certified for DoD use by whom? As for "services ...the army needs", even the army can't tell you that, so they'd say "just make it do everything". Also, who's going to port all the lame crap software the army already has that runs under windows? What if some of it can't be ported?
The problems you described do not happen with a properly configured system.
People don't forget passwords or forget which printer is theirs in Linux? [scoff!]
I would guess even someone in B. CO 1/509th Abn could figure out.
Figure out isn't the problem. You say Linux can be made unbreakable. Nobody who's ever given anything to an 11B (infantryman) ever calls anything unbreakable. You can't depend upon something being robust to protect it, you have to have people available who can fix it when it breaks.
No offence intended.
None taken. Hooah.
SGT DunMalg 3/187th MI Bde 101st ABN Div (Air Assault) (1987-1993)
I'm an Army Sysadmin (Score:5, Interesting)
another thing is that while the liscense costs for all the software that they're getting isn't horrible price-gouging, we don't fucking need it.
I'm in an officer school, the only function for having a database is for keeping track of student information. I already have an access database in place with an oracle database slowly replacing it. I don't need or want SQL and NONE of my users need it, either. we don't need to buy a shit load of liscenses at slightly above prices, what we need is to break that chunk of cash up and give it to the units so that their Sysadmins and IMOs can determine what the unit needs.
I'll give you a little story as an example of how trying to add too many pieces to the puzzle WILL fuck up a supply chain:
earlier this year, I needed 14 computers. I sat down and figured out the paperwork bullshit and forms for it (I'm actually Infantry and have zero training for admin stuff). I priced out how much it would cost for what we needed and found several retailers that we could go through. I sent that stuff up to higher and after about 2 months of that paperwork going through commitee and bueracracy, I got 14 computers that were totally different from what I requested, cost more, lacked software liscenses and hardware that my users needed for them to do their jobs.
anyone higher than brigade levels has no fucking clue what a battalion needs, and even then they don't really know.
this whole package for stuff we don't need irritates me.
Eschelons above reality (Score:5, Insightful)
Amen to that. When I was an Infantry officer I encountered the same thing. I figured, "Hey, in the *real* world of Corporate America, things must be more efficient. After all, since everyone is trying to save or make money, nobody will put up with this sort of wasteful bullshit. There are no Mad Minutes in Corporate America. There's no federal accounting that forces you to spend it or loose it.
Then I started working in Corporate America, and found out that I was dead-wrong. Nobody literally gets on the firing line to blow off ammo before the fiscal year ends, but I've seen so many instances of ass-covering, ego driven "strategies" and just complete incompetence out here in the private sector. In fact, I've come to realize that while the Army's procurement system does suck ass through a straw, in many ways the overall efficiency of the Army (at least at the unit level) is far greater than that of most corporations.
The military periodically gets nailed for million-dollar hammer episodes and the like, but believe me, staggering incompetence is not the exclusive domain of Uncle Sam.
From a soldier's point of view. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:From a soldier's point of view. (Score:4, Informative)
Basically, any "word processor" that would generate/use those fielded pdfs (I don't recall what they're called: pdfs with specific editable entry fields, not the whole doc) would work as a replacement for formflow.
I have been in the AF for 14 years, all told. I recall when the Z80s were all fancy-pants. The main thing that ALL/ANY military member uses their computers for is web browsing (mozilla or konqueror, etc, would suffice), word processing (OpenOffice/StarOffice would suffice - there is nothing in word that is used to any extent to make it necessary), and email using that gawd-awful Outlook. Few use the calender crap. Most use sissy fonts and that's it. If you need to use sissy fonts and non-ascii email, then kmail and virtually any other decent GUI type email app in linux is more than enough. NEED the calender crap? There are linux solutions to that too. Finally, there is powerpoint. Big deal. OO/SO does the same thing just fine. There is NOTHING that M$ brings to the PC that the military needs. Not a single app that is provided is critical only in as much as it comes from M$ or with windoze. Given that, linux would be fine (and they would have fewer worries about worms and virtually no worries wrt viruses...unlike now with doze).
I speak as one who has been only on the user side and on the network admin side. I have run a Comm Sqd involved in laying the cable (fiber and ethernet) and admining the crappy OS. NO user is allowed to do squat to their computer. No installs without approval, no changes, etc. EVERYONE needs passwords for logging in as a user and for unlocking their screensaver (required). See anything in THAT that isn't linux? Anything there that makes M$ Doze THE answer? Didn't think so. Don't get me started on the gawd-damned mailservers (exchange!). What a crappy way to run email. One postfix install could handle as many email addresses as needed...and you could always expand to more linux mailservers if you wanted for some operational reason. Not so with exchange. You hit it's hard limit on the number of email accounts it can handle (software limited) and you have to buy/install another server. What a racket.
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
I'm really impressed. Microsoft must really have it on the ball. An organization known to pay $800 for a hammer chose Microsoft as their software vendor.
Why Windows? Why not !!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait a minute... they just agreed to purchase half a billion dollars worth of software and you're saying they can't afford to hire people to oversee the customization and support they might need with something like Linux?
Fools
Waste of tax dollars
Use a FOSS solution!
Linux would be way better
Simple corporate welfare
Shame on the military for using Windows in the first place!
BSOD
Crashing missiles
blah de blah de blah
Hereâ(TM)s a shocker. Windows may be more cost effective for a huge organization that already is using Windows. Let me repeat thatâ¦
Windows may be more cost effective.
How so? They already use it. Switching to Linux for the desktop would take several years, and be considerably more than $0.5B. With the possibility of it going very, very wrong. Not all Win -> Linux conversions go smoothly.
Why so long and costly? There are literally thousands of custom apps, large and small, that the Army runs on. Already written and in use. Everything from creating ID cards to allocating training munitions to various units. Currently, they run on Windows. What do you think they use now? Pencil and paper?All of these would have to be rewritten in some way. 2, 3, 5 10 years ago when all this stuff was being written, guess what? A viable Linux solution was but a wet dream. You had but 2 choices, Apple or Windows, for regular desktop deployment.
Now...of course you cannot roll out a whole new desktop environment all across the Army on the same day. There will be considerable overlap. So you also have to ensure interoperability between old and new as you roll out. The Army cannot stop business for the several years while this is going on.
You also have to ensure that all of your current hardware is supported. Are there Linux print drivers for the ID card printers? How about the digital camera for that?
Can we build a Linux solution to interface with the hospital patient records db? Sure...but we already have a Windows solution that works, and works well.
Can Civil Engineering find a Linux CAD solution, equivalent to AutoCAD, to design the plumbing and electrics for a new dormitory? Haven't seen one.
What about Public Affairs and the imaging shop? Are there Linux drivers for the digital Nikons they use? Oh..we have to have those written. But there are already native Win drivers for those...supported from the factory.
Laptops. Will Linux work on all the various laptops (with their custom mouse and video drivers) the Army deploys? Maybe...maybe not. But Windows already does. They might well have to buy a whole fleet of different laptops, if Linux can't be made to run effectively on the ones they have.
Linux may well be more stable, secure, and crash (slightly) less. But this is basically desktop use. So what! This is regular desktop use. It just doesnâ(TM)t matter if it is not the most absolute secure system on the planet. These systems are not facing the outside. And not running life critical apps. They don't steer missiles with Win2K.
Take all that into account (and this is but the merest tip of the iceberg) and staying with Windows might well be cheaper than trying to switch.
Did [Linux company] bid on this contract? (Score:5, Insightful)
If not, then shame on them. Maybe they didn't know the deal was going down, but often these RFP's are public information.
That money would have gone a long, long ways towards making Linux the best OS out there. It's almost there now and just about any current distro would work fine, but that money could've been used to quickly fix any minor problems still plaguing Linux (eg. get rid of all text based config tools). As others have mentioned, they could've hired on the best Linux developers available to make everything 100% perfect. I don't think that little extra development would've taken any extra time out of their current schedule and would create jobs for many people along with increasing security, decreasing M$'s monopoly, and bettering open-source as a whole.
As well...
Re:Did [Linux company] bid on this contract? (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe that if it's at all possible, government money should be used to benefit the general population. Funding open-source projects is a good way to get the job done and benefit the tax payers as well. This project would've been perfect for that.
Instead the money just goes to fund the richest corporation in the world.
Re:Did [Linux company] bid on this contract? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's more, the Army would have total access to the code, they could make changes as needed, and they'd never have to spend another dime on OS licenses.
I can't see any way that this deal makes sense. What a waste. Until I hear better, I'm considering this theft by cronyism [reference.com].
write (Score:5, Insightful)
write your news papers. When the public finds out that the Army is wasting this kind of money when there children are have school days cut, and programs slashed from undernieth them. Write every newspaper you can think of, large and small. Make this an issue.
Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
Think about it! One-tenth of that amount would mean 471 Open Source programmers paid $100,000 for a year.
And yet all those tax dollars are instead being funneled into the Microsoft "Black Hole of Software License Fees" where they will never be seen again and where they will certainly not benefit the public interest. And that's just one-tenth of the contract! What about all that other money?! They could spend another four-tenths on XFree86, KDE, various security-related projects, etc. and STILL have half the contract amount left over to migrate existing army-specific software to Qt or other superior cross-platform toolkit able run native on both the new platform and any old Windoze machines that haven't been converted yet.
I propose that we need a large non-profit Open Source consulting firm that specializes in large corporate and government contracts such as these. (Non-profit in the sense of the programmers are the only ones being paid.)
Re:Good News (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember who is currently in office and what his goals seem to be.
It's 1/2 a billion and that's not enough to curtail bombing.
Re:Good News (Score:5, Interesting)
Was this a positive post for our government wasting money?
What are you thinking man? Don't end your post here, elaborate.
Why on earth can you concieve of this being a good thing? Because there will be fewer smart bombs purchased?
This just in, If we want bombs, we buy bombs.
We are in a republican controlled government. All that changes is the size of the debt.
Re:Good News (Score:5, Insightful)
This is almost 1/2 a trillion dollars that won't be spent on "smart" bombs.
1/2 a billion dollars, right?
Anyway, wouldn't you rather the military use expensive "smart" bombs than cheap "dumb" ones? It's not like a lack of funding is going to stop them from entering into conflicts in the first place.
Re:Good News (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I would rather see the money spent on smart bombs that minimalize civilian casualties. While I'm no lover of war, when it's necessary, I personally think killing less innocent people is good. So them spending huge amounts of money on insecure microsoft software seems like a terrible thing to me. Sure if we don't have any weapons we don't go to war, but we do need to defend ourselves. And that's half a billion dollars that isn't going into research giving real technical people jobs. Instead, it's going to Microsoft who will not hire new people because of this, but will most likely use half a billion dollars to destroy other smaller companies that get in it's way. So instead of creating jobs in research and development we are giving loads of money to a known abusive monopoly holder who will most likely use it to put good people out of work. I think the smart bombs have a smaller casualty rate personally.
Microsoft hardly creates jobs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Microsoft hardly creates jobs (Score:4, Insightful)
*nix is great if you need computer systems that are secure, work and are cost effective. But while it's a very good server OS it probably wouldn't meet the Army's needs very well on the desktop.
Windows* boxes are wonderful if you want to spend a lot of money on software, hardware, people to maintain those systems, maintain their security and get half the work done in twice the time. Hopefully the Army won't be using it for servers, or anything else important. I'd hate to have to reboot my tank in the middle of a battlefield.
The money won't be used to create jobs at Microsoft directly but it sure will create a lot of them indirectly.
Personally I'm a little disappointed with where my tax dollars just went.
Re:Good News (Score:3, Insightful)
Go back to college and take Econ 101 again.
Re:uh oh (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of my friends' issues aren't from the major vendors like Dell but rather self-built PC's that utilize a mishmash of buggy motherboards and the like.
RedHat and the other major distributions seem to release major revisions far more frequently than does Microsoft. To get any meaningful support on those systems you would have to actually buy the distribution or hire someone to help if you aren't capable. Free isn't that easy.
In the end I would take Microsoft anyday... and if anything goes severely wrong, there is always someone to hold accountable. You and I might not have the leverage, but the US military backed by a half-billion dollar contract sure will. Where is that accountablility with free software?
Re:uh oh (Score:3, Funny)
That's not even half of it. (Score:5, Funny)
Priceless!
Re:uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, the new one is "Who do you want to go to war with today?"
irrelevant (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cost analysis (Score:5, Interesting)
But a recent West Wing episode pops into my head.
Anyway, I've looked at military spending differently since that episode...
Oh, and Microsoft sucks... blah, blah, blah...
Davak
Re:Cost analysis (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that this invalidates your basic premise, that many military-grade goods are specially made to military spec and therefore justifiably cost more. However, I have to wonder how any Microsoft product meets the kind of quality standards set for even a simple ashtray.
Re:Cost analysis (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cost analysis (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yet another 'Bitch about MS' (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:not a big suprise (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There's more to this story, I guarantee it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Whereas Linux source code is entirely beyond China's reach?
-j
Re:How quickly we all forget... (Score:5, Insightful)
So the issue was quite clearly with the substandard OS.