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Work Progressing on Army's Future Combat Systems

Posted by Soulskill on from the enjoy-debugging-that dept.

El_Oscuro brings us a Washington Post update on the progress of Future Combat Systems, the U.S. Army's Linux-based operating environment that has been under development for several years. The project, which currently surpasses 63 million lines of code, has received criticism for having a scope greater than that which the Army can manage. Since the program's inception, integration of commercial applications has increased the amount of code, but has also saved the developers time and money. "Boeing and the Army said they chose not to use Microsoft's proprietary software because they didn't want to be beholden to the company. Instead, they chose to develop a Linux-based operating system based on publicly available code. Boeing's Schoen said that it is designing software so that if soldiers lose their connection, the software will automatically "heal itself," retrieving the information within seconds without rebooting."

14 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Zombie by Krneki · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn, I was looking forward to zombie soldiers.

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  2. Oh please... by drDugan · · Score: 3, Funny

    software will automatically "heal itself," retrieving the information

    Anthropomorphizing technology is rather misleading... especially in this case, "when death is on the line!"

    1. Re:Oh please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Truly you have a dizzying intellect.

    2. Re:Oh please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      To top it off, this news comes from a group who actually DID start a land war in Asia.

  3. BSOD tradeoff. by bobdotorg · · Score: 5, Funny

    So by avoiding Windows, no BSOD on the battlefield. But instead we risk a Colonel Panic? (sorry)

    --
    __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
  4. Born to Kill by clarkn0va · · Score: 5, Funny
    So are we going to see an official logo featuring Tux with "Born to Kill" scratched on his helmet?

    db

    --
    I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
  5. This is great! by Alexx+K · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now the troops can compile Gentoo while on duty. Hopefully, it'll be finished when they get home.

    --
    Don't mind the extra X. Alex
  6. OR by AndGodSed · · Score: 5, Funny

    General: "Where are my tanks!?"
    Tech Officer: "Coming sir, we're having some dependency problems..."

    --

    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

    1. Re:OR by XnPlater · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tech Officer: "Anyway, now that we're compiling them with -O3, the enemy won't stand a chance, sir!"

      --
      :(){ :|:& };:
  7. Blame game by Wowsers · · Score: 5, Funny

    If anything goes wrong with the project, they could always say it's General Protection's Fault.

    --
    Take Nobody's Word For It.
  8. Here we go again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Gawd. Another gays in the military article.

  9. hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    torrent plz

  10. Re:And Appropriately by VON-MAN · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn right, and just as my linux computer here it can heal its connection withing seconds without booting! Anybody here use Windows? Loosers!!!

    Now, let's read the article.

  11. Several years of development... by secretwhistle · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps it's time for them to upgrade to Reason 2.0.