No Windows Allowed On Ex-Battleship Cruise Liner

uucee writes "Wired has a story on an ex-warship cum cruise ship. Owner of the ship, Doug Humphrey, on why no Windows aboard his ship: 'We didn't want to have viruses blowing up systems that we depend on for navigation and monitoring engines and other systems. And since nothing seems to be able to stop all of these Windows viruses, the best way to win is to just stop using Windows.' However, it's not clear why Mac programmers can be trusted more than Windows programmers to keep a ship running: USS Yorktown was brought to a halt not by a virus but by bad coding: divide-by-zero. As Windows viruses don't travel through 'the ether,' it's also unclear how mission-critical systems, properly cut off from the outside world, would become infected in the first place."

Comments

First post?

[handsomepete]

They didn't have Windows on the ship because sailors kept opening them and getting all their stuff wet. Ta da!

(So long, karma.)

No windows?

[I Am The Owl]

But then how do they see where they're going?

Apple switch ad?

[btornado]

"We avoid the Windows operating system since it is such a huge security risk," he explained. "We didn't want to have viruses blowing up systems that we depend on for navigation and monitoring engines and other systems. And since nothing seems to be able to stop all of these Windows viruses, the best way to win is to just stop using Windows."

Man this entire story would make a good Apple switch ad :).

Re:Whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

Doug,

If you weren't aware of it before, you probably know it by now. Anything interesting or useful that rears its head on Slashdot will likely be ripped to shreds by what has quickly become the nets most vicious and petty peanut gallery.

Slashdottians know nothing, they accomplish nothing, and their opinions are worth nothing. They are uniformly bitter, small-minded geeks who overestimate their own importance and their own skillz. They are, for the most part, losers. Their biggest accomplishment is in insulting others' spelling and grammar, attacking the GPL license despite their grade level understanding of it, and tricking people into clicking on goatse.cx links. They are know-it-all blowhards who use their computers primarily for Pornography and online gaming, at which they cheat regularly to offset their complete lack of motor skills.

Despite touting the wonderous greatness of linux and open source, they all use Windows and Internet Explorer. They like Macs because of OSX, but want it to run on X86 so they can steal a copy and give nothing back. They will eventually buy a Mac due to their inability to run Windows without crashing it constantly by their own stupidity, and become raving unbalanced lunatics who do more harm than good for the Mac community by claiming that the G4 is quadruple the speed of a dual 3Ghz Xeon box.

They lie about their own experience to make their case, and when you win an argument with them, they post anonymously in order to tell you they've had sex with your mother.

Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded.

Signed,
Yoda the Retard

Wargames...

[mshiltonj]

And since nothing seems to be able to stop all of these Windows viruses, the best way to win is to just stop using Windows.

The immediately brought to mind a line from the old Wargames movie: "Strange game: the only winning move is not to play."

Ha!

[sparkleytone]

So like, I was gonna fire my cannon and stuff....and my ship started going BEEEBEEPBEEEPBLIPBEEEP...and I missed. Then I had to try and shoot again but it wasn't as good...cuz I was dead. It was kind of....a bummer.