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GNU/Linux Clears Gov't Procurement Hurdles

Posted by timothy on from the benefit-the-commonwealth dept.

Sam Hiser writes "Tom Adelstein makes some sound if subtle points about where GNU/Linux really is in the government space -- not far enough. With OpenOffice.org and Mozilla (Firefox) now popular harbingers of file format freedom and browser security on Windows, he says, there is hope that public mindshare is catching up with reality; and that the 'Microsoft Two-Step: Shrug & Reboot' will soon be a thing of the past. Adelstein, in his column today in Linux Journal, discusses the significant advances made by GNU/Linux and its achievement of Common Criteria certification for government and enterprise use in a world where Microsoft still dominates in mindshare and governmental purchase orders."

16 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Trying to make stability swipes at MS.... by JohnTheFisherman · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...is so 1998. XP and 2K aren't unstable, as much as you'd like to believe they are. I've tried a slew of Linux distros, I spend about 10% of my time in them vs. Windows, and I 'shrug and reboot' more times in Linux.

    --
    +5:offtopic,but anti-American
    1. Re:Trying to make stability swipes at MS.... by sloanster · · Score: 4, Informative

      I spend about 10% of my time in them vs. Windows, and I 'shrug and reboot' more times in Linux.

      This is your conditioned behaviour due to your familiarity with microsoft products. By your own admission you are a linux newbie, so when you see something you don't understand, it's easy to fall back on the old habits. I can't remember the last time I've booted a linux box, other than for hardware maintenance or a new kernel. My expee using friends boast about how they've gone a whole month without rebooting, and I show them my 450 day uptime, just to put things into perspective.

      Much as microsoft has improved their stability, and taken some baby steps towards being a wee bit more linux-like in that regard, they still have a long way to go. I spent some time with expeee in the past week, upgrading several relatives from ie and outlook to mozilla/firefox, and I have to say, I found expee to be the same old windows I left years ago.

      Oh, it was cuter, microsoft has put a lot of effort into making it cute - and it doesn't seem to crash quite as much as win95/98/nt (thanks no doubt to the generous helpings of bsd unix code they've helped themselves to - gee, you don't have to reboot now just to change IP address) but after a few days of expee, I still felt like I'd been forced to work while squeezed into one of those tiny kindergartner desks. blech, give me my SuSE 9.1 desktop anyday.

    2. Re:Trying to make stability swipes at MS.... by kyknos.org · · Score: 2, Informative

      imho, they are unstable. i use both systems - linux and nt based windows (2k mostly, but xp too). i do very similar things with both systems - computer graphics. i use two systems because i need photoshop and i need gimp too (it is still much metter in linux) and it is easier for me to have two machines then reboot or use wine or something like that. hardware is the same, wokload very similar. i need to reboot windows ten times as often

      --

      SHE does throw dice.
    3. Re:Trying to make stability swipes at MS.... by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Informative

      If it's any consolation, I switched from Windows, to Linux, then back to Windows. I personally find XP to be more usable than Linux (at least as recently as Mandrake 9.2), and I prefer the look and feel of the GUI.

      I'm no newb either - my first Linux install was slackware 3, downloaded at uni and taken home on floppies. Lots of floppies. I've hand-hacked modeline entries in my X config when an install failed to detect my monitor correctly, I've upgraded kernels and gcc, and even upgraded from libc5 to glibc2.

      You know what? I can't be bothered any more. If I have to do any more than install the OS, install any required drivers then install the software I want to use, forget it. My time is too precious to me now to be futzing about. True, Linux is almost there; but that's the thing, it's almost there. For what I do, Windows is there now, not real soon. Cost? I already own a legally-licensed copy of XP Pro. Stability? XP crashes for me as often as Linux used to - that is to say, almost never. My home machine I switch off at night, but my work machine stays on 24/7. I reboot it when I need to move it, or when an update tells me to - and really, why care? Rebooting takes all of a minute, I don't even have enough time to grab a cup of coffee. Uptime obsessions are all very well for servers, but this is desktops I'm talking about.

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
    4. Re:Trying to make stability swipes at MS.... by wtarreau · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you really do get such kernel panics, either you have a REAL problem with your hardware, such as a defective memory stick, or you are systematically hitting a particular and undiscovered kernel bug which is only triggered in your setup.

      In both cases, you are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to post one of your panic dumps, or even oopses if you also get some, to linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org so that people can help you resolve the problem.

      Kernel panics are *EXTREMELY RARE* on reliable hardware. I'd say that if you even had ONE in a YEAR, it should be reported.

      But please help us help you, and don't uselessly spread some FUD about linux reliability. I have installed some production machines which now have >750 days uptime, so if it was not reliable, I would already know it.

      willy

  2. It do Work here by Milo+of+Kroton · · Score: 4, Informative

    Government can't switch to Linux or even free software, people say. Well, such has done München (Munich you say) here in my country. I am professional involved with some of people who are with the project involved, and it is as they are accorded going "smooth move, exlax" as you Americans say.

    --
    Read journal when you are not understand
  3. Re:-1 Flamebait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    "Windows? "Thanks for installing ProgramX, please reboot your computer to use it"
    Very interesting because I haven't had to reboot my Windows 2K or XP computer in a very long time. I also haven't seen any program ask you to restart the computer other than Operating System updates and video card drivers. You cannot judge and OS on how frequently you have to reboot especially when in either one it is not rebooted frequently.

  4. Re:Technical Support by dlamming · · Score: 2, Informative

    It would avoid some security issues like when Republican staffers "broke into" Democratic bulletin boards and published internal memoranda.

    Not really. Suppossedly, the permissions on the shared files were set incorrectly. It's pretty easy to have sensitive documents shared to the world under linux too. Now admittedly, the technical competence of your linux administrator vs the typical MSCE should be high enough to help reduce these problems, but setting permissions incorrectly is easy to do under any OS.

    --
    Not only am I a scientist, I play one on TV
  5. Re:-1 Flamebait by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Informative

    My current Mandrake install refuses to shut off my computer, hanging at 'power down system.'

    That's a problem with power management; for some reason, either the kernel hasn't sent the necessary shutdown signal to the hardware, or your hardware has ignored it. Back in the old days, before most PCs could do that, that's what you'd be left staring at - remember Windows' "It is now safe to switch off your computer"?

    You're right in that it shouldn't be happening, though. Unfortunately, it's been so long since I had to fix that sort of thing that I can't really give you any pointers.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
  6. Re:why popular? by stoborrobots · · Score: 2, Informative

    You do realize that MatLab runs in Linux if you're willing to licence it, which it seems you are under windows...

    Anyway, a quick freshmeat search showed me that Nulab, Yorick, Scilab, FrAid and Lush are all possible replacements, depending on the application. Moreover, many of those refer to Octave which might be suitable, depending on your needs.

    Likewise National Instruments makes LabVIEW for Linux, and freshmeat says to look at Flow Designer and TACO as potential free replacements.

    If the two are used for related purposes, then consider RobotFlow which came as a result under both searches...

    Just in case you decide to retry the system at a later date...

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  7. Re:Shrug and reboot, huh? by Mattwolf7 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Gentoo isn't as hard as everyone says it is.

    They include more information than most people need for the install.

    Read the section on FDISK then
    # mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo
    # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/boot
    # mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
    # mkdir /mnt/gentoo/proc
    # mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
    # tar -xvjpf /mnt/cdrom/stages/stage3--20040412.tar.bz2
    # cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf
    # chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
    # env-update
    * Caching service dependencies...
    # source /etc/profile
    # emerge sync
    # emerge gentoo-dev-sources
    # cd /usr/src/linux
    # make menuconfig
    (Read Kernel Section)
    # make && make modules_install
    # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel
    # cp System.map /boot/System.map
    # cp .config /boot/config
    (Read fstab Section)
    # emerge grub
    (Read Grub Section)
    # passwd
    # exit
    # cd /
    # umount /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo
    # reboot

    It just takes some patience

  8. Re:Shrug and Reboot? by pherthyl · · Score: 3, Informative

    Legitimate support for DVD playback - Check the Slashdot story from a week or so ago about powerdvd for linux. I admit this is a bit weak but xine plays dvds fine. Are you seriously concerned about illegally playing DVDs?

    Games - Agreed. Then again some of the quality new games are also available for linux.

    MS Office - Openoffice for 99% if the work. If you really need 100% compatibility you can run Office with Wine

    Painless firewalling - Painless like not enabling the firewall until after the internet is up? Please, theres tons of nice graphical firewall config apps for linux too.

    Free, automatic updates - C'mon.. Linux has had free updates from its creation. And any decent modern distro has an autoupdate facility. And not just for the OS but for all the applications you have installed!

  9. Re:I hate to be the one to have to break it to you by goMac2500 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually on Mac OS X it does... It can encrypt your data on the fly. If you boot from a livecd you can't touch the data without a password to de-encrypt it.

  10. MS is CHEAP if you work for the gummint by g0hare · · Score: 2, Informative

    Really, it's almost free it's so cheap. It's cheaper than the posted prices of Redhat Enterprise. I think my org paid $150 for Windows 2003. It's easy, people are used to it, it works, it's cheap. Hard to get a reason to change.

    --
    Vote Quimby!
  11. Re:Shrug and Reboot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I run a Linux network at home (4 systems) and no Windoze machines. My wife has to have Excel so I run Crossover Office with Microsoft Office 2000 Professional on my Linux boxes. I have absolutely no problem with DVD playback, copying, backup, TV capture, you name it. My systems are up 24/7/365 and have been for the past two years (not counting major power outages). I'm firewalled out the wazoo. I have no viruses. The only legitimate reason that I can see for you running Windoze is games (it *is* a valid reason though for the time being). I don't play games on my systems so it's not a problem for me. BTW, I work for DOD and Linux is there in force, and growing daily.

  12. Re:I work for the Feds... by underCat · · Score: 3, Informative

    I hope someone reads this far down... I work as an IA specialist for DoD and linux and vxworks are used in a lot of crucial areas. radars run vxworks. networks that transfer target data run linux. Common Criteria (the orange book) is an old standard and is recognized as untenable. The red book came out to address some of those issues. the orange book only certifies non-networked platforms. the minute you connect it to something the certification is void. the DoDI 8500.2 is the reigning instruction for certification of all systems. and just to be fair... win2k, xp, or 2003 aren't CC certified either. Sometimes you just have to ask a govy before deriving your own conclusions. underCat --- because cats just don't care

    --
    Sig? No, thanks. I don't smoke.