June 30, 2012 at 20:47US Army chooses Linux
Contrary to popular belief, not all military equipment works on specific, highly reliable and top-secret hardware and software. Of course, critical systems, such as on-board computers of airplanes, ships, or drones, run on a real-time OS that looks little like ordinary consumer systems. But side by side with them work completely ordinary computers and operating systems. Today, the military is increasingly using Linux. Among the June contracts issued by the US Department of Defense, there is an agreement with Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems worth nearly thirty million dollars, according to which the company must transfer all MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV control systems to Linux by February 2014 .
This decision was preceded by a scandal in October last year. A keylogger virus was detected on the computers of the Air Force base in Nevada, with which many drones are controlled . Computers were running Windows.
In 2008, the Worm: W32 / Agent.BTZ worm infected many computers in the Pentagon. The virus spread through flash drives and other removable media for three years. After this incident, the rules for handling such media in the US military were significantly tightened. Even earlier, in 1998, the whole USS Yorktown ship “crashed” for 2 hours 45 minutes due to a software error. The ship was controlled by computers based on Windows NT 4.0.
Linux and other free software have long been widely used by the US Army. The Ministry of Defense website has a detailed FAQ , which lists specific examples of military use of open source software, studies showing the many advantages of free software over proprietary software, and the many nuances of using the GPL in military applications.
This decision was preceded by a scandal in October last year. A keylogger virus was detected on the computers of the Air Force base in Nevada, with which many drones are controlled . Computers were running Windows.
In 2008, the Worm: W32 / Agent.BTZ worm infected many computers in the Pentagon. The virus spread through flash drives and other removable media for three years. After this incident, the rules for handling such media in the US military were significantly tightened. Even earlier, in 1998, the whole USS Yorktown ship “crashed” for 2 hours 45 minutes due to a software error. The ship was controlled by computers based on Windows NT 4.0.
Linux and other free software have long been widely used by the US Army. The Ministry of Defense website has a detailed FAQ , which lists specific examples of military use of open source software, studies showing the many advantages of free software over proprietary software, and the many nuances of using the GPL in military applications.