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Windows 10 Compatibility Issues Forcing US Air Force To Scrap a Significant Number of Computers (betanews.com)
The US Department of Defense has decreed that the Air Force must complete its migration to Windows 10 by March 31 2018. From a report: Failure to do so will result in any systems not running Microsoft's latest operating system being denied access to the Air Force Network. However, because Windows 10 is not compatible with many of the Air Force's existing systems, a significant number of computers will need to be replaced in order to hit the deadline.
the DoD use Windows 10 Pro! Just my 2 cents ;)
Many of the systems I see around are identical to the models I was putting in place in 2009. They need to upgrade, and anything to pressure them to do so is a good idea IMO.
I worked for the USAF for 8 years as an Airman and 30 as a civilian. I went from an HP85 for line monitoring at a comm site in 1983 to workstations in an aircraft hangar in 2017. I remember going from win95 to win98 and it was good. We went to win2000 and it was good. XP Pro upgrade was good. Then Vista came.....over 50% of our workstations were down at any one time for over a year. After a few years we got Win7 and it was so wonderful. I use Linux at home but Win7 was as stable as I could wish and a million times better than Vista. They avoided 8 and when I retired last year the big dread was Win10. Nobody likes it at home, I know a bunch of people that bought Macs just because of Win10. I'm glad I'm going to miss that adventure.
Consumers, and business owners in particular, love to drag their feet on upgrading their hardware. Kick the can down the street again and again, until finally they hit a wall and are forced to upgrade. It's interesting to see the government pulling the same derp maneuver.
A better plan is to do gradual upgrades on a schedule. When you suddenly find you have to upgrade a bunch of computers, AND peripherals AND os AND proprietary software all at once, it's not only financially painful but causes major pains for the people that have to learn all this new stuff at once. But they're blind, they just can't see the train until it hits them.
Can't say it surprises me to see the govt join the party.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Many of the systems are incompatible with Windows 10, not the other way around. One piece of govt software I work with uses a version of Crystal Reports that's about 15 years old, and hasn't been supported for ages. The reports do not function on newer drivers, and there's no compatible driver for W10, so users of that software have held off, but they're being forced off this year. And don't get me started on COM+
There are a number of things that Win10 has broken at this point from a hardware standpoint. One of which is imaging devices if they're using a now non-supported imaging codec. This broke a great deal of web cams, and I wouldn't be surprised if it broke other WIA devices too like normal cameras and scanners.
I'm small potatoes compared to the military - I manage about 800 desktops and laptops. But if the computer won't run Windows 10 (usually due to driver issues), there's not much choice. Even if the user loves their computer, doesn't want anything newer, and thinks Win10 sucks, I have to upgrade them. I'm a cheapskate by nature, and I hate recycling perfectly good equipment, but that's the cost of doing business.
Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
Driver incompatibility is the big thing. And it's real - when someone's $2,000 microscope camera works with Win7, but not with Win10, upgrading is painful.
"Slap in a SSD" is great when you have three computers at home. When you're dealing with thousands, the simplest steps become year long projects.
Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
It is actually happening in all of DoD. The big thing driving hardware refresh is the DISA mandate to use TPM 2.0 as part of their "Secure Hardware Baseline". There is a lot of hardware that is even just a couple of years old that is stuck at TPM 1.2 (vendors not offering updates) that is having to be replaced.
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If they had used Mainframe "green screen" applications, they wouldn't have this problem.
Table-ized A.I.
https://www.amazon.com/StarTec...
Yeah 2 years to rewrite all the drivers and 3rd party software
Check out gsaauctions.gov. When government property isn't needed any more, it usually goes to some type of surplus room for a while. If no one claims the item from surplus then after a while it will be auctioned off to the public. Hence the site. They have all sorts of stuff on that auction site. From old FBI police cars to former DoD computers. Note that most of the computers have had their hard drives removed though.
I kept a coffin dodger laptop alive this way. There used to be companies who dealt with recycling spare parts for laptops plus the manuals in PDF form. The LCD screens were the most expensive part at half the price of the original laptop with a trade in of the old screen (they could replace the mini fluorescent tube). Everything else was fairly cheap - cooling assembly for the CPU/GPU, logic circuit for the screen lid closed latch. Even when the audio jack got mangled due to the cable being pulled, that could be replaced with a USB socket. Hard disk drives were upgraded as time went by: 40 GB/60 GB/80 GB/250 GB. But as the Linux and Windows OS's went to 64 bit, the minimum size OS partition went from 20GB to 60GB for a full development kit.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Obama took away our guns and now he's trying to take away our F-22 Raptors, too.
You sir, are a moron
No shit, Sherlock. It just shows that the most outrageous and uninformed statements can be easily mistaken for mainstream Republican views.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I am a moron, but you still get a "woosh!" for not realizing I was joking.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Seriously, between Russia cracking it, and dod forcing USAF to run win 10, ms has to love it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
..you have old computer controlled machines. The device drivers may not be available, either because the product is obsolete, the company is dead, or they decided to not update the drivers, or the updates are prohibitively expensive
It's not just hardware. Some old (very expensive) software only runs on the old OS.. same problems as device drivers
If all you use is common, recent software... no problem
Why not install some version of Linux and run whatever windows is necessary as a virtual machine? Sure would make windows upgrades easier to deploy, as one could merely distribute an updated image, and machines would be less likely to crash all the way down, and instead would only crash the emulator. For devices that depend on old versions of windows, the VM image might be read only in order to halt any malicious writes.
I would have been horrified to know that our military just uses Microsoft Windows and not some super secret flavor of a home grown operating system. What happened to security?
Even Windows is more secure that some crap OS slapped together by a low-bid defense contractor. These are the people that designed the F-35. To get a feel for milspec software, go try to write a program in Ada.
COTS > Milspec
Is what this is all about. If you've had to work with the various DISA stigs, then you know just how much software can't really easily be deployed. You can't just "run linux and a VM for Windows", because there are only SPECIFIC versions of Red Hat that have STIGs that allow it to be "properly audited". Getting a "Certificate to field" is a complicated, torturous route that must be re-done for each different enclave the CtF is for. Software like MySQL doesn't even have a STIG, so all of that is out the window.
And it then there is Trusted Platform compatibility, Fedramp certified cloud, etc. My current job is working towards 800-171 certification, which is a watered-down version of 800-53. It's still a huge PITA, but these standards are needed because of APTs and stupid end-users. IMHO, your "electronic election system" should at least be at 800-171, but "STATES RIGHTS" means easily hackable machines.
They should require a complete set of source code for every piece of technology utilized. There should never be a piece of third party technology that has a dependency like this that puts a third party in control of critical technology.
It's utter bull shit that a government entity of any kind anywhere is putting themselves in such a situation where they do not have full control over the technology they're adopting. Talk about a security failure.
I know there is at least one major government which is not Russia, China, or the United States that has recognized this issue and is taking steps to correct it. The country has figured out that having access to a complete set of source code for everything is critically important to there national security. It's not Iran or North Korea either. I'm not at liberty to state the country at this time although there is talk of funding a completely open SoC for national security reasons.
For a fraction of the cost of the shitty F22 Program, the air force could...
-Deploy brand new, state of the art computers across the entire Air Force.
-Pay to have any legacy programs rewritten or migrated to their OS of choice.
-Pay to have all of those certified.
-Pay Microsoft to develop a DoD-grade OS compatible with those programs.
-Give every Air Force employee a huge Christmas bonus.
-Solve world hunger.
-Fix the national debt.
-Find extra-terrestrial life.
I was about to say that with Linux this wouldn't happen. But then I remebered that X.org had deleted dozens of video drivers when they decided on an irrational whim to delete all of the XAA code which turned a huge number of older computers into boat anchors. Linux systems developers seem to think you should need the latest Intel GPU made within the last 3 years. Whoops.
Lots of people having multiple prompts for smart card PINs. Has anyone solved that one? And no, Google search doesn't return useful results.
Also consider all the changes to the US mil. Say the CIA wants someone who can resupply the freedom fighters.
Someone with navigation skills, can fly at night, has a lot of international flying experience, a top security clearance and the other people needed to load, unload.
That search deep into plain text Air force files cannot be logged, seen, recovered, tracked in any way.
Old version of mil computers stay secure from all congressional oversight.
A new MS OS might go full Iran Contra and recall freedom fighter support missions years later.
An old MS OS is a trusted OS.
Also consider the medical records that have to be kept. Who has a poor diet, was not fit, could not pass a standard fitness tests, could not read a map, could not keep up.
With an old OS everyone joining is set as ready for duty. A new OS might see the political changes to ensure everyone got a free pass on some too difficult fitness tests that are not politically correct.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Most of us know you're just a joker.
It depends. For example, if it is specialized hardware it can't just be replaced.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
That reminds me of some of the laptop computers I worked on back in the early 1990's. I worked for a well-known laptop manufacturer who made some laptops for the military. The military laptop I worked with was Tempest certified. It had a removable SCSI hard drive where all data on the drive was encrypted. It was a nightmare to take it apart. Once you took off the cover you had to remove all of the RF shielding (128 screws held the RF shielding on, I kid you not!). The screen was an electroluminescent VGA screen with a fine wire mesh in front of it. It was designed so there were no detectable RF emissions. The company's laptops were also quite rugged. One of the other commercial laptops they made was modified to run on the US space shuttle.
The DOD can have a lot of weird hardware requirements and often the current hardware is what we would consider outdated due to the long development times and how long all the approvals and whatnot took.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
One would hope.
My jokes and witty repartee are the reasons I was elected President of Slashdot Comments three times. And I intend to represent all Slashdot commenters, even the haters and losers.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Use Linux
aaaaaaa
pcmcia cards
I thought these things were a myth.
You're close, I bet. Proprietary (old) imaging and scanning hardware will not have drivers. Old apps will require these devices.
This isn't unusual for any large organization that standardized on apps. The planning and budgeting is a military problem only when there was a disconnect. Someone should have known this a year ago.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
My guess is a lot of them are quite old - 10+ years.
Even in Linux, at some point the hardware is just too outdated.
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OK, I was overexaggerating a bit. If you go further back like ones from 2002 or before I think you'll have more problems