Swedish Carbon-Fiber Stealth Ship Runs NT

tiled_rainbows writes "The Guardian has an article today about the Swedish navy's new stealth warship, which they claim is the largest carbon-fiber vessel ever built. Slashdotters will be interested to learn that the ship runs Windows NT. The article says 'While the point-and-click system is popular with conscripts, the ship was fitted with a wooden ship's wheel at the insistence of senior officers. If Windows goes down, they will still be able to steer.' Which raises the question: where can I get a USB-compatible wooden ship's wheel for my computer?"

Comments

Support ?

[Alcoyotl]

IIRC, Microsoft was bound to stop support on windows NT 4. Are there any kind of provisions for systems such as this, which is going to be in service for quite some time? Or will the Swedish Navy be on its own if some glitch appears ?
I know that using an old an proven operation system is better because all major bugs have been either wiped out or referenced, still I'm not sure that using a closed source unsupported OS is the smartest way. But maybe they know better ?

Doesn't carbon fibre burn?

[s20451]

I'm not a materials scientist, but I would imagine that carbon fibre can burn. A huge advantage of steel is that it may weaken under heat stress, but it will never contribute to a fire, which is one of the gravest threats to a warship in combat.

The British learned this lesson the hard way in the Falklands. In that case the new building material was aluminum, which can actually burn when it gets hot enough. This contributed to the loss of several ships which suffered massive fires after being hit by Argentinian aircraft. As a result, not only in the UK but in navies around the world, new naval ships are built entirely out of steel.

Re:Doesn't carbon fibre burn?

[meringuoid]

the HMS bork bork bork is a joke... actually all naval vessles made in the last 60 years are a joke compared to the real battleships of WW-II.

WWII demonstrated the obsolescence of your old behemoths. Take the British and German fleets from the battle of Jutland: classic dreadnoughts, immense steel battleships with incredible armour and gigantic guns. Put them on one side. Take the HMS Ark Royal, a small aircraft carrier from the modern Royal Navy. Put that on the other side. Which side wins?

If you said anything other than Ark Royal you lose. Our good friends the Japanese demonstrated in 1941 what happens to traditional battleships when someone in an aeroplane has a go at them.

Re:I got your USB ships wheel right here, pal.

[Dr. Evil]

You know, the sensor doesn't need to support the wheel :-)

Skipping the driving controller, you might do better to dismantle a $2.99 optomechanical USB mouse for its optical sensor and USB interface.

Re:Movie idea

[stratjakt]

They must have divided by 0 in kernel space to bomb the OS.

NT get chosen for stuff like this because it's easier for them to support special hardware by writing and maintaining drivers, not a particular monolithic kernel that slashbots would recommend.

Frankly, who cares. This would be a story about some really cool tech (an enormous, "invisible" boat) but instead its an OS flamewar.

Bah, slashdot isn't a "news for nerds" or a "geek" site anymore, it's just a soapbox for OSS philosophy.