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

Games

[Daleks]

"We forced everyone to go to Macs for the desktops," he said. "The support load dropped to almost nothing and the only complaints were from people who couldn't play games on their machines any longer. So sorry, no games at work. We are so mean."

"I've used Macs for the last six years," he said. "I had a PC before that, but Macs were fun and more reliable. I don't play computer games so that might help explain why I don't miss the Windows box."

"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."

Two paragraphs noting that Mac's don't have as many games, and one noting that Mac's are more secure that Windows machines. If I hadn't read the Slashdot headline I would've thought this article was about a game-hating sailor.

what I want to know is...

[nuckin futs]

how are they using a satellite connection without going through a PC running Windows? Every report I see at DSLReports.com indicate that there is no way to connect directly to a Mac (or linux). You need Windows to do the ICS because there are no Mac/linux drivers for the satellite modems available.

Unclear?

[rebill]

it's also unclear how mission-critical systems, properly cut off from the outside world, would become infected in the first place

That's easy - unless the machine is unplugged, sealed in cement and at teh bottom of the ocean, *someone* is going to bring his special program from him and will install it on the box.

Unless you post a guard on every box at all times, someone is going to play with it and screw it up.

Or steal it. One guy was so brazen that he came into a training class, and removed RAM from the machines while the class was going on. We found out about it a little while later when the person giving the class called us to ask when were were going to send the guy back to "finish working on the machines."

"Uh, what guy?"

"The guy that you sent out, earlier!"

"We didn't send anyone out . . ."

The point is, with 5000 employees in a manufacturing plant, we had the occasional problem where one of our critical systems would drop off-line because someone wanted to plug in their coffee machine, or play his solitaire on OS/2, or decided that they really wanted to chill down their alcohol in that nice, air-conditioned cabinet during the summr months . . . and Cruise Ships will have that many employees. All it takes is *ONE* idiot, and you end up in the press . . .