The Navy’s Newest Warship is Powered by Linux

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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The newest front line warship of the US Navy, the USS Zumwalt, cost the taxpayers a total of $3.5 Billion dollars to build, but little of that amount was allocated to run the ships complicated computer systems; the ship runs entirely on Linux.

At the heart of its operations is a virtual data center powered by off-the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over 6 million lines of software code.
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I would prefer if our warships didn't run on Windows don't you?
 
The military probably doesn't want malware running on their hardware.
 
There they are! FIRE!

But ..........

Windows has successfully downloaded 21 updates
Your computer will restart in 15, 14, 13 ... seconds
 
Yeah but their electronics boards are made in china!:rolleyes:
I'm sure there is malware some where on those boards.

B00nie said:
The military probably doesn't want malware running on their hardware.
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Nokia said:
Yeah but their electronics boards are made in china!:rolleyes:
I'm sure there is malware some where on those boards.
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If there is going to be malware it's going to be windows malware so it doesn't matter. Besides I'm sure that Raytheon has scanned the firmwares before adoption.
 
B00nie said:
If there is going to be malware it's going to be windows malware so it doesn't matter. Besides I'm sure that Raytheon has scanned the firmwares before adoption.
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One would hope that the OS that runs the ship is completely isolated from any sort of external access of a remote nature.... fuck it who am I kidding, I bet you could play Candy Crush on Facebook at the navigation station.
 
B00nie said:
If there is going to be malware it's going to be windows malware so it doesn't matter. Besides I'm sure that Raytheon has scanned the firmwares before adoption.
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Every year there are fewer people who are capable of scanning firmwares.
 
I'd prefer a Controlled Windows/Citrix environment running on a few monster ESXI hosts being protected by a few Cisco products over that.
 
It's hardly surprising that such an ugly ship would be powered by Linux. Seriously, it's almost painful to look at the thing.
 
Nice to see them looking at open source to save money and get a better end product. Now if only more companies and organizations could also look at Linux too.

Only danger is if there is a kernel panic. You don't want the kernel to panic when aboard a military ship. :p
 
Red Squirrel said:
Nice to see them looking at open source to save money and get a better end product. Now if only more companies and organizations could also look at Linux too.

Only danger is if there is a kernel panic. You don't want the kernel to panic when aboard a military ship. :p
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Or if an update to libjpeg breaks the entire system GUI. :)
 
We were on the Royal Caribbean "Oasis". It ran on XP Embedded from what I could tell.

The Safety Drill was done through LED monitors all over the ship. During the drill, it Blue Screened. I have a picture of it somewhere. Everyone (but the crew) started laughing. The drill took over an hour since they did not have a backup plan if the monitors took a shiit.

Back on topic, Linux is far better at networking. And it's easier to lock down. And you can it on devices with VERY little RAM.

If MS released Office for Linux, they would collapse.
 
The USN has actually always been pretty strong with computer technology.

Read up on Rear Admiral Grace Hopper who wrote the first compiler ever.
 
Meh. Most military applicationd wont use a unix or windows distro at all. Timing is too critical. Theyll either use a schedular or a ground up RTOS
 
Cause they needed another ship and couldn't of spend that 3.5billion on something useful for the country...
 
Galvin said:
Probably used linux cause it can be customized more than windows.
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And seeing how the NSA probably has very little need for a backdoor into the Navy's ships systems, passing on windows made sense.
 
I am sure the systems are customized beyond our recognition. Use what works for them. :)
 
Probably would have cost them at least another half billion for Windows and Citrix licenses if they had went that way.
And let us be honest here...
Do we REALLY want Win8 running the pcs that are going to be firing nukes?
For god's sake man! How the hell are they going to launch without a start menu to bring up targeting when they're not using touch screens and just keyboards?! It'd never happen! We'd be toast hours before they could figure out how to shoot back!
 
Qinsp said:
We were on the Royal Caribbean "Oasis". It ran on XP Embedded from what I could tell.

The Safety Drill was done through LED monitors all over the ship. During the drill, it Blue Screened. I have a picture of it somewhere. Everyone (but the crew) started laughing. The drill took over an hour since they did not have a backup plan if the monitors took a shiit.

Back on topic, Linux is far better at networking. And it's easier to lock down. And you can it on devices with VERY little RAM.

If MS released Office for Linux, they would collapse.
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Office does a good job paying the bills, but it's AD, Exchange, and WSUS that maintain control.
 
office for linux would not collapse MS... nice try though. As said Enterprise is what keeps MS going, should try using it sometime, AD / DC is alot better than linux for business and locking down systems and network access and Exchange kicks the crap out of anything i have seen on Linux for mail service in the enterprise level.
 
Meh, I wouldnt have issues with a warship running Windows. I've seen servers running Server 2003 that had over 1000 days uptime, running critical applications for hospitals. Many others had 600+ days too. Closed network, locked down workstations, and too important a system for anyone to want to schedule downtime.

Hell I had an old laptop make it over 500 that was used for surfing. Lost that uptime when I tripped on the power cord and it shut off. Didnt have a battery in it :rolleyes:
 
SGA76 said:
Probably would have cost them at least another half billion for Windows and Citrix licenses if they had went that way.
And let us be honest here...
Do we REALLY want Win8 running the pcs that are going to be firing nukes?
For god's sake man! How the hell are they going to launch without a start menu to bring up targeting when they're not using touch screens and just keyboards?! It'd never happen! We'd be toast hours before they could figure out how to shoot back!
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Ok! Let's be honest, the problem with windows 8 is not what's under the hood, it's a cosmetic problem. The OS solid.

Either way, I meant I would use server 2k8 r2.
 
I wonder if they have backup systems that take over if they get hit with a EMP?
 
Babbster said:
It's hardly surprising that such an ugly ship would be powered by Linux. Seriously, it's almost painful to look at the thing.
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I'd like to think that if we spend billions on our military, they'd put practicality before vanity.
 
Azhar said:
I'd like to think that if we spend billions on our military, they'd put practicality before vanity.
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I agree. Also, I bet you that thing is pretty fast overall as well. I wonder how fast it is capable of turning? That thing also looks pretty good as well for a new ship.
 
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