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FAA May Ditch Vista For Linux

Posted by kdawson on from the hello-Google dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Another straw in the wind: following last week's news that the US Department of Transportation is putting a halt on upgrades to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7, today comes word that the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware. (The FAA is part of the DOT.) The FAA's CIO David Bowen told InformationWeek he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. 'From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages,' he said."

4 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. I can see why the FAA dumped Vista...... by 8127972 · · Score: 3, Funny

    .... as they'd have to deal with this all of the time.

    - A plane is about to land. Cancel or Allow?
    - A plane is about to take off. Cancel or Allow?
    - A transport truck is about to crash. Cancel or Allow?

    You'd get sick of having to click Cancel or Allow all of the time too.

    Oh wait.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  2. Re:Google Apps Appliance by markov_chain · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, I know, we could put all these appliances into some kind of enclosure with common power, cooling, and even super fast backplane. We would probably need to keep these "frames" in climate-controlled rooms. The main "frame" would serve the most common apps, and if some offices needed some specialized stuff they could buy small versions, kind of like miniature computers! Hah, I kill myself.

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  3. Re:Well, Compare it to Vista by ragefan · · Score: 3, Funny

    But, you know, give them a hard date by which everyone should be using Google Apps (oh, there's always problem workers but leave that to middle management).

    Usually middle management *are* the problem workers.

  4. How many times have we seen this? by mergy · · Score: 3, Funny

    An executive from a big organization X is looking at upgrading his Microsoft-centric network of products. He thinks he will get a good deal from MS because he is a big shot and the company or government agency is a big deal. He is shocked at the initial price MS comes back with. He knows he is not going to rip-out all the MS stuff across the massive network but really has no other way to bargain other than issuing a release saying he is evaluating (Redhat/Suse/ and now Google) and wants bargaining chips to take back to MS.

    Let me tell you the end of the story for all of you, MS comes back and gives the software away on the initial upgrade pricing but nails them to the wall for years on support.

    In 5 years, rinse and repeat.