Microsoft Lands Large Army Software Contract 4

[BJCooperIT]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...5&u=/nm/20030625/tc_nm/tech_microsoft_army_dc

^{Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw}
Consultant/Custom Forms & PL/SQL - Oracle 8.1.7 - Windows 2000

 

[chiph]

The fun part is they're installing this onto commercially-bought PCs, that already come with OS and MS-Office licenses. So, what are they spending their money on?

Chip H.

 

[sleipnir214]

chiph:
I've ordered machines from Dell with no OS on them before.

The last server came with DR-DOS installed -- I had specified no OS, but there was something about their contracts with Mi¢ro$oft requiring that they ship every machine with an OS installed.



Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

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TANSTAAFL!

 

[Tarwn]

We just got a barebones poweredge from dell with no OS. I assume they do install (probably minimal) one at some point just to check that everything is functioning together as it should be, but we're going to be getting windows seperately for it (it's getting a multi boot 95/98/nt/2000/xp pro/03 server).

_{01010100 01101001 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101111 01101011 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101}
^{29 3K 10 3D 3L 3J 3K 10 32 35 10 3E 39 33 35 10 3K 3F 10 38 31 3M 35 10 36 3I 35 35 10 3K 39 3D 35 10 1Q 19}
Do you know how hot your computer is running at home? I do

http://www.tiernok.com/hscripts/systemp.asp

 

[jwenting]

Besides which those computers may well come with software different from what the Army needs.

I've worked for one huge project (1800 desktops, 200 or so servers.
They were delivered with Windows 95 and Office 95 Std. (this was 1998).
The company wanted Windows NT4 and Office 95 Pro..

The supplier told us (and no reason to not believe them in this) that the extra work needed to remove the software from the machines and change the packaging to remove the CDs would be more expensive than the money saved (the importer got the machines boxed and preinstalled from the factory elsewhere in the world. They'd each have to be unpacked, formatted, repacked without the CDs, those CDs shipped back to the factory, all of course at our cost).

So we just contacted Microsoft for a site license for 2000 machines (some future expansion and spares) for Windows NT4 and Office 97Pro.

If the same were to happen again today the manufacturer would likely have an option of an empty machine as standard of course, but at the time there was little demand for that.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Maybe I missed something in the article, but I didn't find anywhere where is said the software was the OS. Microsoft does produce other software besides its various versions of Windows.

It could be that one of the issues is standardization, bringing all of these existing PC's to the same version of both Windows and to the same versions of Office.

This would make the Army only the latest vicitim of not having a PC policy in place to insure that as PC's proliferated throughout the organization, that certain standards were maintained to reduce incompatability costs.

The move makes sense (if standardization is what is behind this), in fact, many large corporations have spent large sums of money to do the same, but I would have prefered that they chose some other standard for OS and application software.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[edemiere]

Tank Commander: "Soldier, lock in on that bunker and prepare to fire!"

Soldier: "Locking in sir, give the order to fire"

Tank Commander: "Ready! Fire!!!"

<brief silence>

Tank Commander: &quot;Fire!&quot;

<brief silence>

Tank Commander: &quot;Soldier, what the heck are you doing? Didn't you hear me say fire?&quot;

Soldier: &quot;Yes sir, I did, however I got a fatal exception error in my targeting software. I will need a few minutes to reboot&quot;



Cheers!

 

[CajunCenturion]

Cute joke edemiere. When the Army contracts with Microsoft for software related to combat systems, then we'll really need to start worrying. Form now anyway, we're only talking about desktop PC's.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[jsteph]

...another scenario might be:

Tank Commander: &quot;Fire!&quot;

Soldier: &quot;Wait--s little paper-clip guy popped up asking me if I would like to add this target-type to the database so next time he can fire automatically without asking for orders next time he detects this target-type....What should I do?&quot;

Tank Commander: &quot;Dammit, just fire!!&quot;

Soldier: &quot;Ok...just a minute, he's winking at me before he closes...&quot;

Tank Commander: &quot;INCOMING!!! AGGHHHHHHH!!!!!&quot;

--jsteph

 

[chiph]

Corporal Clippy.
:-D

Chip H.

 

[MichealC4]

lol. Those jokes are something the Army should read ... Maybe it will slap them in the face. What I am bothered with is that the military had the foresight to create the skeleton of the internet, but they don't have the foresight to see what is right in front of them, giving Microsoft ammunition in its legal battles and giving Microsoft more money. I can hear Microsoft saying: &quot;Well your Honor, the military just bought x number of licenses from us, so we can't be wrong.&quot;

I am Comptia A+ Certified

 

[vbSun]

A possible solution for all the problems that may arise because of using M$ software for troops.. Make M$ software Mandatory for all the armies in the world.. At least Governments will think twice before heading to a war !!!

 

[jwenting]

Given the number of coredumps and crashes I get in Linux (several a day) as compared to Windows (none, despite the systems being far more heavilly used) I doubt stability will be a problem...

Modern Windows versions won't usually be taken down by an application crash, and the US Army will most likely have excellent procedures to prevent poorly designed applications from being deployed (no sendmail or X, just to give 2 Unix examples...).

 

[AIXSPadmin]

Windblows is the biggest scam ever pulled on the public!

I used to run it at home and for any unknown reasons it would just lock up. Sometimes, the ethernet would just quit working and I would have to delete it and reboot and it would be there. And the aces at Microstumped still haven't figured out how to handle the dll problems as Unix has with object/so files; and also the &quot;reboot, reboot, reboot&quot; scenario is assinine.

With the exception of having to use the kludge at work, I am &quot;Windblows free.&quot;

 

[jad]

'Modern Windows versions won't usually be taken down by an application crash'

i recently had to rebuild a windows machine that booted up absolutely fine, shutdown fine, talked to the scanner and the printer ...

but none of the apps worked ... the cd-writer software died instantly, word died instantly, outlook died instantly, <insert application here> died instantly ...

the registry seemed to think that the 'application has not been installed' ... for every application.

if the OS runs, but none of the programs do, is that an improvement on the OS not crashing with the programs?

by the way 'modern' windows is easily taken down by an application crash ... in fact if it decides that the printers have gone wrong that can take out the 'modern' windows

 

[Grenage]

Oh look another Linux/Windows comparison

95/98/ME are horrid and constantly crash. 2k and XP are very good OS's and I very rarely have problems with them (user/hardware/program error is usually the cause).

Linux I have had a few crashes on but thats always been because I don't really know what I am doing on it.

 

[jsteph]

In my opinion, the bottom line with all the Windows 'issues' is quite simple: Microsoft has lost control of this system.

They can't even begin to figure out what causes some of these crashes, I believe they are truly in over their heads.

Some of the ideas for the os's architecture may have 'seemed' like a good idea (the Registry a good example), but the implementation and execution were so premature and hacked that there is no way that even the best minds can fix it.

Which brings to mind &quot;Dot Net&quot;. This is just a desperate &quot;hey, let me start over&quot; ploy--building a new architecture and environment that attempts to fix some of the registry/dll-hell problems, and attempts to become the platform for that 'holy grail' of software dev--'write once, run anywhere'. But anyone could achieve that if you force everyone to load your emulator first (the .net 'common language runtime').

-jsteph

 

[OV]

The keyword in the original article that started the thread is &quot;high margin&quot;. Why should it be such a high margin for such a big deal? Also why is it a third party involved in such a big deal?
Talk about wasting taxpayers' $$

OV

 

[KornGeek]

&quot;high margin&quot; could be a low margin percentage multiplied by a large number of units. This does not necessarily mean taxpayers are getting ripped off.

I personally tend to have a little more faith in the government and especially the military. When they spend more money on something than what seems normal, it's generally because it has more to it than the normal one. They are paying to get the specialty items that you can't just run out and get at your local store.

Having been a vendor to several government agencies, I have seen how they try to get a price as low as possible. Generally, they try to save money the same as any other business. However, they sometimes have people making bad decisions which later get blown out of proportation, the same as any other business.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Another factor to consider with respect to wasting the tax payer's money is the current costs with respect to conversion costs, translations costs, support costs, etc, etc when dealing with thousands of heterogenious system. In the long run, the costs of standardization may well actually save money.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein