Slashdot Mirror
Land Warrior Army Suits Simplified, Linux-ized
Dosco Jones writes 'The Army is drastically simplifying the makeup of its high-tech soldier ensemble, the Land Warrior, in an effort to make the system less prone to failures and easier to use,' National Defense reports. Defense Tech continues: 'After the last version of Land Warrior failed reliability tests earlier this year, the Army switched gears and decided to make the system less complex and modify the hardware to make it compatible with the new [and controversial] Stryker infantry vehicle. Changes include a more simplified data bus and a Linux-based operating system, as opposed to Windows. 'Evidence shows that Linux is more stable. We are moving in general to where the Army is going, to Linux-based OS', says the program's manager, Lt. Col. Dave Gallop."
...it's all made by the lowest bidder. And by that criterion, Linux is the clear choice.
One thing that nobody's managed to explain to me is how your average 11 Bravo is expected to carry an extra fifty-odd pounds of electronics.
Land Warrior? I'd settle for a fucking infantry boot that wasn't the height of 1950's technology.
Murphy's Combat Law #6: Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
There just aren't enough marines and SF guys out there to do the boring "country occupation" missions.
Plus, it would be a waste of their advanced training to have them doing such mundane work.
The Marines are small (in number), but much more elite - they can afford to take only the best. If you eliminated the Army and wanted to expand the marines to compensate, the Marines would be diminished because they would no longer be able to be as selective and elite.
Parent is dumb. Embedded systems are not designed like that system on your desktop. Typically in embedded applications you have a watchdog timer which will reboot the system within ms of the system locking up. With Linux this will take just a few seconds, and the system was running in RAM so no need to worry about disk corruption.
The rigors of combat? Hell, it doesn't even survive the rigors of internet browsing or playing DVDs. Forget active combat!
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
...the real advantage to using Linux as opposed to Windows in this instance is the ability to strip the OS down to the bare essentials required to accomplish the mission.
Windows is the kind of OS where cramming in as many features as possible is more important than many other things. Hence, this system running Windows is likely hogging up cycles and draining battery performing tasks that aren't needed or even wanted in a battlefield.
But with Linux you can strip it down so that every cycle is a neccessary one. Plus the NSA has plenty of experience hardening the kernel per it's whimsy.
The Military has experience fielding unix in ground combat systems. It's been proven time and again in combat. A Linux solution (or an embedded linux solution) allows the Army to customize even the very low levels of the software in addition to the legendary reliability it enjoys in other systems.
Windows has neither of those things and frankly is not suited to an environment where taking time to patch the OS or troubleshoot could cost you your life.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)