US Air Force to Scrap Computers Due to Windows 10 Compatibility Issues

Megalith

Megalith

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The US Air Force has been ordered to migrate to Windows 10 by March 31, but there is one problem: Microsoft’s latest OS is not compatible with many of the service branch’s existing machines. A lot of hardware will need to be replaced, the cost of which is unknown.

"The Windows 10 migration is critical to Air Force readiness," said Lt. Col. Brian Snyder, Windows 10 lead action officer, cyberspace strategy and policy. "It introduces a number of new security features; making it the most secure Windows version to date. Additionally, base and organizational leadership must ensure communication/cyber squadrons are provided all the support and availability necessary to guarantee success."
 
There are a lot of industries where the decision makers (usually non-IT) refuse to replace software that is no longer supported, forcing us to stick with old operating systems. It sucks.
 
wyqtor said:
You'd think that a nation's air force would not put itself at the mercy of any private company.
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They've been directed to use open software wherever possible; CentOS (and RHEL) have seen an uptake, replacing both Solaris and Windows Server.

But desktop usage is likely to remain Windows, especially as Microsoft has worked hard to increase performance and security over the years. They probably wouldn't be willing to migrate to Linux desktops unless Active Directory were fully implemented along with Windows containers (as if).
 
Better money be spent on this, than say the trillion + F-35 that no one wants, no one asked for, and can't fly in rain or cloudy weather.
 
My buddy Flys an A10. Said each AFB has a different computer. One base might have Dell's, HP at another, and Lenvo at yet another. Some still have E machines win 98 on them, but a majority still run 2000, XP, and Vista. Luckily none of them interface or are used for mission critical items, but calling home on some of the machines us a pain as they don't support modern features, webcams, or secure video calling.
 
SSimmons05 said:
My buddy Flys an A10. Said each AFB has a different computer. One base might have Dell's, HP at another, and Lenvo at yet another. Some still have E machines win 98 on them, but a majority still run 2000, XP, and Vista. Luckily none of them interface or are used for mission critical items, but calling home on some of the machines us a pain as they don't support modern features, webcams, or secure video calling.
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Yeah I remember my cousin talking about computer systems the army was using on the base he was stationed at. Most of them still had windows 98 cdkey stickers on them. But they some how shoe horned windows xp on them with 256mb of ram and single core Celeron processors. But the base right next to his had all top of the line computers(for 2015 standards) that no one used since the base was used for vehicles maintenance..
 
When I was in the computers ran DOS....connected up to nalcomis and that was it. Blue terminal white text. Awesome
 
wyqtor said:
You'd think that a nation's air force would not put itself at the mercy of any private company.
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alxlwson said:
Better tell them to dtich Boeing, GD, LM and others as well.
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Except Boeing, GD, LM and others aren't run by an H-1B Indian who employs H-1B contractors from nations the Air Force bombs.

Anyway this story made the rounds on the tech blogs earlier this week and was already debunked as another MS payola / publicity stunt ala "NYPD chooses Windows Phone!", "NFL chooses Surface Tablets!" etc. -- they're getting toughter and more pointless as Microsoft sunsets like IBM before them and their relevance wanes.
 
DPI said:
they're getting toughter and more pointless as Microsoft sunsets like IBM before them and their relevance wanes.
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Microsoft isn't top dog anymore. Amazon is now ahead in market cap. But Microsoft's market cap is still at $700 BILLION USD with about $150 billion is cash and equivalents, approximately equal to IBM's current market cap of $148 billion. If Microsoft and Apple were priced like Amazon in terms of profits Apple will be worth over 16 TRILLION dollars and MS well behind but second with major tech plalers at over 7 trillion.

I get the hate of Microsoft with folks around here but they aren't Sears. Unless Microsoft is running the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history or some other cataclysmic event occurs, it's going to be a rich and powerful corporation long after we're all dead.
 
Microsoft is competing with AWS- but Amazon doesn't have a Windows competitor. Closest thing to that is Mac OS and it's not the bundle of fun you want in an enterprise.
 
bigdogchris said:
There are a lot of industries where the decision makers (usually non-IT) refuse to replace software that is no longer supported, forcing us to stick with old operating systems. It sucks.
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Sometimes its the finance guys who say no...mention software re-writes and OMGWTFBBQ-NO. They don't mind updating physical systems but god help you if you want to replace the old HP Basic test software.
 
Do try to remember the US Air force is still using Intel iAPX 86 and 88's systems to launch and safeguard the nuclear weapons they have stationed all over.
 
To be fair here, those things must be OLD if they're not compatible with Win10 - I've had Win10 up and running on some machines that were pretty ancient with no worries at all...

Of course, it could be compatibility with something a bit more specific to the USAF, such as dongles for this or that, but then that won't change with a new computer either...
 
heatlesssun said:
I get the hate of Microsoft with folks around here but they aren't Sears. Unless Microsoft is running the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history or some other cataclysmic event occurs, it's going to be a rich and powerful corporation long after we're all dead.
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Nokia-Forbes.jpg
 
When I was in the military all of the computer equipment was severely outdated, and support was non existent.

Guys who were infantry who joined for student loan forgiveness were made into IT people.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
View attachment 54677
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Anything is possible. In 32 years of public trading, Microsoft has never had a material loss. They have had two massive quarterly paper losses, one related to the Nokia acquisition. But they no where near insolvency by any standard I know of. In order to tank a company with $700 billion USD with $150 billion in cash, you'd need more than just ordinary mistakes, there'd have to be something criminal going on. Criminal as in the government coming in and shutting them down. Something might have been possible during Microsoft's anti-trust problems. But as some many Microsoft haters point out, there no where near that level of power relatively speaking today.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
I'm sure there's a spot for M in the Alphabet. Right next to Nest. :)
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I'm just saying that it's premature to write off a $700 billion company that in 32 years has never had a material loss before they actually start posting long strings of material losses. ;)
 
Jim Kim said:
I know why windows 10 is so secure, every new version resets network settings. And we all know if your computer ain't on the network it's pretty secure. ;)
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Hmmmm, we haven't had that issue with any of the thousands of computers we have upgraded Windows 10 versions on.
 
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