and claim that it will not be used as an invasion of privacy as if nothing illegal is happening, then they won't be looking.
If they are not looking, how do they know nothing illegal is happening?
This is just like a mall security camera system. They can and do watch you from the parking lot entrance, along every corridor, and into every store.
Based on profile, they watch the 20 something with baggy pants as he nervously checks out the CD's. Up to now, he has done nothing wrong. But he shows some of the standard signs. So the guard watches him. From one store to another. Eventually, the kid goes home, having done nothing wrong. But he has been scrutinized closely the entire time. And may be watched again, next time he chooses to go to the mall.
This is a city size version of that. Well...I call BS. Unless and until a person actually does something illegal, then and only then should they be tracked down/arrested/whatever. Until then, it is nunya dam bidness where and when I travel.
They're not really splitting the cost. You, the neighborhood admin, can set whatever price you think your neighbors will bear.
"Who sets the NetShare customer pricing?
We put the power in your hands! As the Admin, you can select any retail price from $20 to $50, in $5 increments, and from $60 to $100 in $10 increments."
Your bill gets cut in half, they get new customers, they do all the billing, and you do all the local footwork and admin. Signing up people who would otherwise not have gone to DSL.
"We want to bomb you before we have time to actually think about it."
Or the concept could actually be "We have more time to think before deploying forces. Once we start deploying, things get hairy very fast."
The capability to bomb a country into oblivion on short notice has existed for 50 years. This aircraft might provide the capability to put a human pilot on the scene on short notice, rather than an irrevocable ICBM. Currently, we can do the same thing, but it takes 12 hours instead of 2. B-2's flying out of Whiteman AFB can be ontarget anywhere, within 12 hours.
Just think if we had the capability in 1942 to take out the German High Command. And only the High Command. On short notice.
"Hey...they just went into the bunker for a meeting." "Ok..take them out" Millions of lives would have been saved. Millions.
We cannot afford to wait until the USA has already struck -- we must force the Bush regime to disarm, or preemptively invade immediately to force a regime change.
Why do you assume that a Cav can carry a non-nuclear weapon, but a MIRV can't?
A MIRV could carry a conventional weapon, but why would you?
Accuracy sucks. ICBM's are flying a long way, over basically uncharted territory. The specific gravitational anomalies and wind conditions have never truly been mapped. Yes, they launch regularly from Vandenburg to some islands out in the Pacific, but they've been doing that so much, they know how to adjust. Over the pole has never, for obvious reasons, been done. Modern smart bombs and air to ground missiles can hit within inches. Or hit a truck on the move. The pilot can adjust at the last minute, or decide not to drop at all, because the intel was bad, and there is a large group of civilians in the way. An ICBM merely drops on their heads.
Throw weight. An F-15 Strike Eagle can probably carry as much as an ICBM in terms of explosive weight.
Image An ICBM launch would start a whole chain of reactions, in a lot of countries. The plume will be detected, and someone might launch in retaliation (Use it or lose it), even though they were not the target.
in my understanding, the speeds of manned fighters and bombers have been limited by the need to keep the human inside alive during excessive G forces.
No. Going fast does not generate G forces. Turning does. And modern fighters are capable of turning harder than the pilot can generally stand. So the computer limits what is going on, depending on several parameters. Fuel load weapons load (bombs and missiles, or just missiles) Altitude etc, etc.
If the pilot commands "Turn left as hard as you can", the computer figures out exactly what that means in the current context.
If merely going fast in a straight line generated excessive g-force, we would never have gotten in orbit or to the moon.
In any case, B-52s are more than good enough for the kind of wars they've been fighting lately.
Yes, lately. What sort of action will be needed in 25 or 50 years? The B-52 fleet is scheduled to fly well into the 2030's. A lifespan of 80 years or so. There needs to be a follow on aircraft of some sort.
I suppose most of the NORAD radar systems to be somewhat north of anywhere that an amateur launch would take place, as I believe they mainly watched for an attack of the North Pole.
An attack *of* the North Pole? No. An attack *from* the North Pole?. No.
An attack coming over the North Pole, yes. OTH radar. But also, they watch potential launch sites on the ground as well. Any missile launch generates a big heat plume. Much better to know as it is leaving the silo, rather than 1/2 way to its target.
And yes, I expect this was large enough to show up on their system.
Well...if the citizenry can communicate on a personal level, without govt involvement and snooping, with the citizenry of the 'opposing' side, then yes, it may well stop or bring an early end to the numerous civil wars.
How long would East Germany and the wall have lasted if Germans on both sides (sometimes members of the same family) could have talked to each other on a daily basis?
I'm not saying "Give em WiFi!" is a be all and end all to their problems. But how will it hurt?
Temporary tattoos on demand Want a mural for your wall, but can't paint? Grab an image off the web and go for it.
CD labeling
Coffee shop business meeting. Beam that database diagram directly from your laptop to the napkin. No more illegible chicken scratch.
Custom paint jobs on anything
This is one of the very few gadgets here on/. that I'd actually buy.
I also want to control and send the output to each set of speakers from the same source, and was thinking that a PC, with 4-6 soundcards, would do the trick,...
Far too complex.
A PC, with a good sound card output, driving a regular stereo component. Let the dedicated stereo unit drive the multiple speakers.
I have been in the AF for 14 years, all told. I recall when the Z80s were all fancy-pants. The main thing that ALL/ANY military member uses their computers for is web browsing (mozilla or konqueror, etc, would suffice), word processing (OpenOffice/StarOffice would suffice - there is nothing in word that is used to any extent to make it necessary), and email using that gawd-awful Outlook.
Just word processing, web browsing, and email? Really> You must be walking around with blinders on. I did 20 in the USAF (retired in '97) and I can show you 3 apps that you personally have come in contact with, that are outside that realm.
Ever gotten an ID card? What do you think the SP uses to a) take your picture with that digital camera, and b) print the card? Word? No.
Ever been deployed? Sure you have. Well...the s/w that maintains the schedules for all the USAF deployments, exercises, etc, is NOT held in Excel or Outlook calendar. There is a custom app for that. I know, because I wrote the original one for ACC. Since ported to Oracle, I believe.
Ever taken your kid to the base hospital? Sure you have. How do you think they verfy his DEERS status? Another custom app.
3 different offices, 3 completely different uses of non basic s/w. And there are zillions more. Finance, CBPO, CE, all use stuff far outside "web browsing, word processing, and email". I defy you to go into any office, and have the users get by with only the base s/w install.
Could all those be rewritten outside of the Windows world? Sure. But it will take a lot of time, and a LOT of money to do that.
In the case of this buy...MS is the answer, because when the money was approved, alternatives did not exist. The Army CIO didn't just get up this morning and call Billy and say "Here's 500 large. Send me some software." This contract was let, and the money approved, long ago. Star/OpenOffice for an alternative to Word/PowerPoint/Excel/Access was not (and still isn't) there.
An organization the size of the Army has a lot of inertia behind it. Radically changing course is not to be done lightly.
I would much rather have our government hire IT professionals that create OSS and implement it than outsourcing everything to private companies that use proprietary code.
Let me fill you in on how it works. I can only speak to the USAF method, and not the Army, because that is what I have intimate knowledge of.
Most custom apps are written in-house. Not contracted out, and certainly not contracted out to Microsoft. MS (and other vendors) provides the framework. Windows, Office, SQLServer, Oracle, etc. The actual applications are written in house. Either by one of the main software houses (1 for Air Combat Command (Langley AFB), and 1 for Air Mobility Command(Scott AFB)). Or in the case of small tools, maybe by a knowledgable user in the particular office. And there are a LOT of those. If the project gets big enough, it may get taken over by one of the aforementioned s/w houses.
The USAF (ACC at least), had/has a "Self Help Lab'. An organization, in need of a tool/application, can send a couple of 'user-experts', and the guys teach them how to build and maintain their own code. I was the NCOIC of the first one of those at Langley.
The USAF owns the code for all these applications. There is no 'proprietary code', owned by an outside vendor for these tools. Does the USAF have the source code for MSProject? No. Does it matter? Again, no. If MS decides to make Project2004 incompatible with Project2000...you have 2 choices. Don't buy 2004 and stay on your current version, or modify your custom app that sits on top of it (of which you DO have the code for). The exact same thing would happen with a app that had been outsourced in OSS. Don't upgrade or modify.
Sure...some things get outsourced. But guess what? Quite often, the source code is part of the deal! And can be maintained/modified, in house, forever and ever.
Be it a custom app on top of MSProject, or an aircrew medical records screening process, or a training munition distribution application...the USAF already owns and has posession of the code, to modify at will.
Although OSS is not easy to use, it can be. An easy to use interface is just that, an interface. It is evolutionary. Things become easier to use overtime with advances in technology.
And only just now are OSS tools becoming viable. Even just a year or two ago, Linux as the base, and all OSS tools on top of that, was not a viable prospect.
Microsoft unfortunately tried to go for ease-of-use before having a strong foundation. They did more harm to the IT industry than most people realize.
On that we agree. And eventually, we will dig ourselves out of this hole. Once a complete end to end alternate is available. The penguin is almost there, but not quite.
The military CIO's are not stupid people. On the contrary, quite intelligent. And VERY budget oriented. Just because they have not so far chosen to switch to Linux does not mean it isn't being considered. Very closely.
How many 500,000 person, global companies have made the desktop switch to Linux? How many have considered it, and put it on the shelf for later, when more/better tools are available?
Yawn.. throwing money at education doesn't help. It requires good people running the show, first. My school district showers themselves with new laptops, PDA'a, and other gadgets, but gives the students the pits (incomptent teachers, low quality textbooks,etc).
If public schooling had bigger competeition (read: vouchers), they would have reason to raise their quality to compete with other schools.
And we can surmise by your post that you are a product of an incompetent teacher?
Reading various comments here, I thought Iâ(TM)d stick my nose in.
[background â" former USAF Windows programmer]
Wait a minute... they just agreed to purchase half a billion dollars worth of software and you're saying they can't afford to hire people to oversee the customization and support they might need with something like Linux?
Fools Waste of tax dollars Use a FOSS solution! Linux would be way better Simple corporate welfare Shame on the military for using Windows in the first place! BSOD Crashing missiles blah de blah de blah
Hereâ(TM)s a shocker. Windows may be more cost effective for a huge organization that already is using Windows. Let me repeat thatâ¦
Windows may be more cost effective.
How so? They already use it. Switching to Linux for the desktop would take several years, and be considerably more than $0.5B. With the possibility of it going very, very wrong. Not all Win -> Linux conversions go smoothly.
Why so long and costly? There are literally thousands of custom apps, large and small, that the Army runs on. Already written and in use. Everything from creating ID cards to allocating training munitions to various units. Currently, they run on Windows. What do you think they use now? Pencil and paper?All of these would have to be rewritten in some way. 2, 3, 5 10 years ago when all this stuff was being written, guess what? A viable Linux solution was but a wet dream. You had but 2 choices, Apple or Windows, for regular desktop deployment.
Now...of course you cannot roll out a whole new desktop environment all across the Army on the same day. There will be considerable overlap. So you also have to ensure interoperability between old and new as you roll out. The Army cannot stop business for the several years while this is going on.
You also have to ensure that all of your current hardware is supported. Are there Linux print drivers for the ID card printers? How about the digital camera for that? Can we build a Linux solution to interface with the hospital patient records db? Sure...but we already have a Windows solution that works, and works well. Can Civil Engineering find a Linux CAD solution, equivalent to AutoCAD, to design the plumbing and electrics for a new dormitory? Haven't seen one.
What about Public Affairs and the imaging shop? Are there Linux drivers for the digital Nikons they use? Oh..we have to have those written. But there are already native Win drivers for those...supported from the factory.
Laptops. Will Linux work on all the various laptops (with their custom mouse and video drivers) the Army deploys? Maybe...maybe not. But Windows already does. They might well have to buy a whole fleet of different laptops, if Linux can't be made to run effectively on the ones they have.
Linux may well be more stable, secure, and crash (slightly) less. But this is basically desktop use. So what! This is regular desktop use. It just doesnâ(TM)t matter if it is not the most absolute secure system on the planet. These systems are not facing the outside. And not running life critical apps. They don't steer missiles with Win2K.
Take all that into account (and this is but the merest tip of the iceberg) and staying with Windows might well be cheaper than trying to switch.
We don't need industry middlemen jacking up prices so they can continue to take a slice anymore than we need buggy whips.
Unfortunately, we do. Those are the guys that front the money for producing and promoting the album. How many bands out there have enough cash upfront to buy serious studio time?
Now....te question is...do those middlemen take too much for their cut? Probably. That is what needs changing.
Slashdot Mirror
and claim that it will not be used as an invasion of privacy as if nothing illegal is happening, then they won't be looking.
If they are not looking, how do they know nothing illegal is happening?
This is just like a mall security camera system. They can and do watch you from the parking lot entrance, along every corridor, and into every store.
Based on profile, they watch the 20 something with baggy pants as he nervously checks out the CD's. Up to now, he has done nothing wrong. But he shows some of the standard signs. So the guard watches him. From one store to another. Eventually, the kid goes home, having done nothing wrong. But he has been scrutinized closely the entire time. And may be watched again, next time he chooses to go to the mall.
This is a city size version of that. Well...I call BS.
Unless and until a person actually does something illegal, then and only then should they be tracked down/arrested/whatever. Until then, it is nunya dam bidness where and when I travel.
They're not really splitting the cost. You, the neighborhood admin, can set whatever price you think your neighbors will bear.
"Who sets the NetShare customer pricing?
We put the power in your hands! As the Admin, you can select any retail price from $20 to $50, in $5 increments, and from $60 to $100 in $10 increments."
Your bill gets cut in half, they get new customers, they do all the billing, and you do all the local footwork and admin. Signing up people who would otherwise not have gone to DSL.
"We want to bomb you before we have time to actually think about it."
Or the concept could actually be
"We have more time to think before deploying forces. Once we start deploying, things get hairy very fast."
The capability to bomb a country into oblivion on short notice has existed for 50 years. This aircraft might provide the capability to put a human pilot on the scene on short notice, rather than an irrevocable ICBM. Currently, we can do the same thing, but it takes 12 hours instead of 2. B-2's flying out of Whiteman AFB can be ontarget anywhere, within 12 hours.
Just think if we had the capability in 1942 to take out the German High Command. And only the High Command. On short notice.
"Hey...they just went into the bunker for a meeting."
"Ok..take them out"
Millions of lives would have been saved. Millions.
We cannot afford to wait until the USA has already struck -- we must force the Bush regime to disarm, or preemptively invade immediately to force a regime change.
If you feel tough enough, Sparky, bring it on.
British?
While not defending the record of the US military, maybe you should take your own advice.
Why do you assume that a Cav can carry a non-nuclear weapon, but a MIRV can't?
A MIRV could carry a conventional weapon, but why would you?
Accuracy sucks. ICBM's are flying a long way, over basically uncharted territory. The specific gravitational anomalies and wind conditions have never truly been mapped. Yes, they launch regularly from Vandenburg to some islands out in the Pacific, but they've been doing that so much, they know how to adjust. Over the pole has never, for obvious reasons, been done.
Modern smart bombs and air to ground missiles can hit within inches. Or hit a truck on the move. The pilot can adjust at the last minute, or decide not to drop at all, because the intel was bad, and there is a large group of civilians in the way. An ICBM merely drops on their heads.
Throw weight. An F-15 Strike Eagle can probably carry as much as an ICBM in terms of explosive weight.
Image An ICBM launch would start a whole chain of reactions, in a lot of countries. The plume will be detected, and someone might launch in retaliation (Use it or lose it), even though they were not the target.
Here ya go, as of 3 years ago.
And here as of Jan '99.
in my understanding, the speeds of manned fighters and bombers have been limited by the need to keep the human inside alive during excessive G forces.
No. Going fast does not generate G forces. Turning does. And modern fighters are capable of turning harder than the pilot can generally stand.
So the computer limits what is going on, depending on several parameters.
Fuel load
weapons load (bombs and missiles, or just missiles)
Altitude
etc, etc.
If the pilot commands "Turn left as hard as you can", the computer figures out exactly what that means in the current context.
If merely going fast in a straight line generated excessive g-force, we would never have gotten in orbit or to the moon.
In any case, B-52s are more than good enough for the kind of wars they've been fighting lately.
Yes, lately. What sort of action will be needed in 25 or 50 years? The B-52 fleet is scheduled to fly well into the 2030's. A lifespan of 80 years or so. There needs to be a follow on aircraft of some sort.
This is one possibility.
The real things is bombers are recallable.
Launch, hold at the predesignated point. If the situation resolves itself, come home. If not, go forward and blow something up.
Once you get past 'launch' with an ICBM, it is out of your hands.
so that if a flaw is found, you're stuck with it.
Not if, but when.
And not necessarily a flaw, but also a workaround/hack.
I suppose most of the NORAD radar systems to be somewhat north of anywhere that an amateur launch would take place, as I believe they mainly watched for an attack of the North Pole.
An attack *of* the North Pole? No.
An attack *from* the North Pole?. No.
An attack coming over the North Pole, yes. OTH radar. But also, they watch potential launch sites on the ground as well. Any missile launch generates a big heat plume. Much better to know as it is leaving the silo, rather than 1/2 way to its target.
And yes, I expect this was large enough to show up on their system.
Well...if the citizenry can communicate on a personal level, without govt involvement and snooping, with the citizenry of the 'opposing' side, then yes, it may well stop or bring an early end to the numerous civil wars.
How long would East Germany and the wall have lasted if Germans on both sides (sometimes members of the same family) could have talked to each other on a daily basis?
I'm not saying "Give em WiFi!" is a be all and end all to their problems. But how will it hurt?
I never understood why so many businesses use that type of mouse. $10 for a male mouse or $15 for a female (optical) mouse.
hmmm...maybe it is because optical rodents have not been around that long?
Give this a couple years development...
/. that I'd actually buy.
Temporary tattoos on demand
Want a mural for your wall, but can't paint? Grab an image off the web and go for it.
CD labeling
Coffee shop business meeting. Beam that database diagram directly from your laptop to the napkin. No more illegible chicken scratch.
Custom paint jobs on anything
This is one of the very few gadgets here on
I also want to control and send the output to each set of speakers from the same source, and was thinking that a PC, with 4-6 soundcards, would do the trick,...
Far too complex.
A PC, with a good sound card output, driving a regular stereo component. Let the dedicated stereo unit drive the multiple speakers.
Combine tilting web navigation, with smart phones that know your buying habits (and credit card info).
Drop it on the carpet. Pick it up and find out that you just ordered and paid for, a battleship anchor, express delivery to your house.
I have been in the AF for 14 years, all told. I recall when the Z80s were all fancy-pants. The main thing that ALL/ANY military member uses their computers for is web browsing (mozilla or konqueror, etc, would suffice), word processing (OpenOffice/StarOffice would suffice - there is nothing in word that is used to any extent to make it necessary), and email using that gawd-awful Outlook.
Just word processing, web browsing, and email? Really> You must be walking around with blinders on. I did 20 in the USAF (retired in '97) and I can show you 3 apps that you personally have come in contact with, that are outside that realm.
Ever gotten an ID card? What do you think the SP uses to a) take your picture with that digital camera, and b) print the card? Word? No.
Ever been deployed? Sure you have. Well...the s/w that maintains the schedules for all the USAF deployments, exercises, etc, is NOT held in Excel or Outlook calendar. There is a custom app for that. I know, because I wrote the original one for ACC. Since ported to Oracle, I believe.
Ever taken your kid to the base hospital? Sure you have. How do you think they verfy his DEERS status? Another custom app.
3 different offices, 3 completely different uses of non basic s/w. And there are zillions more. Finance, CBPO, CE, all use stuff far outside "web browsing, word processing, and email". I defy you to go into any office, and have the users get by with only the base s/w install.
Could all those be rewritten outside of the Windows world? Sure. But it will take a lot of time, and a LOT of money to do that.
In the case of this buy...MS is the answer, because when the money was approved, alternatives did not exist. The Army CIO didn't just get up this morning and call Billy and say "Here's 500 large. Send me some software." This contract was let, and the money approved, long ago. Star/OpenOffice for an alternative to Word/PowerPoint/Excel/Access was not (and still isn't) there.
An organization the size of the Army has a lot of inertia behind it. Radically changing course is not to be done lightly.
Lighten up, Francis. It was a joke.
I would much rather have our government hire IT professionals that create OSS and implement it than outsourcing everything to private companies that use proprietary code.
Let me fill you in on how it works. I can only speak to the USAF method, and not the Army, because that is what I have intimate knowledge of.
Most custom apps are written in-house. Not contracted out, and certainly not contracted out to Microsoft. MS (and other vendors) provides the framework. Windows, Office, SQLServer, Oracle, etc. The actual applications are written in house. Either by one of the main software houses (1 for Air Combat Command (Langley AFB), and 1 for Air Mobility Command(Scott AFB)). Or in the case of small tools, maybe by a knowledgable user in the particular office. And there are a LOT of those. If the project gets big enough, it may get taken over by one of the aforementioned s/w houses.
The USAF (ACC at least), had/has a "Self Help Lab'. An organization, in need of a tool/application, can send a couple of 'user-experts', and the guys teach them how to build and maintain their own code. I was the NCOIC of the first one of those at Langley.
The USAF owns the code for all these applications. There is no 'proprietary code', owned by an outside vendor for these tools. Does the USAF have the source code for MSProject? No. Does it matter? Again, no. If MS decides to make Project2004 incompatible with Project2000...you have 2 choices. Don't buy 2004 and stay on your current version, or modify your custom app that sits on top of it (of which you DO have the code for). The exact same thing would happen with a app that had been outsourced in OSS. Don't upgrade or modify.
Sure...some things get outsourced. But guess what? Quite often, the source code is part of the deal! And can be maintained/modified, in house, forever and ever.
Be it a custom app on top of MSProject, or an aircrew medical records screening process, or a training munition distribution application...the USAF already owns and has posession of the code, to modify at will.
Although OSS is not easy to use, it can be. An easy to use interface is just that, an interface. It is evolutionary. Things become easier to use overtime with advances in technology.
And only just now are OSS tools becoming viable. Even just a year or two ago, Linux as the base, and all OSS tools on top of that, was not a viable prospect.
Microsoft unfortunately tried to go for ease-of-use before having a strong foundation. They did more harm to the IT industry than most people realize.
On that we agree. And eventually, we will dig ourselves out of this hole. Once a complete end to end alternate is available. The penguin is almost there, but not quite.
The military CIO's are not stupid people. On the contrary, quite intelligent. And VERY budget oriented. Just because they have not so far chosen to switch to Linux does not mean it isn't being considered. Very closely.
How many 500,000 person, global companies have made the desktop switch to Linux? How many have considered it, and put it on the shelf for later, when more/better tools are available?
Yawn.. throwing money at education doesn't help. It requires good people running the show, first. My school district showers themselves with new laptops, PDA'a, and other gadgets, but gives the students the pits (incomptent teachers, low quality textbooks,etc).
If public schooling had bigger competeition (read: vouchers), they would have reason to raise their quality to compete with other schools.
And we can surmise by your post that you are a product of an incompetent teacher?
Reading various comments here, I thought Iâ(TM)d stick my nose in. [background â" former USAF Windows programmer]
Wait a minute... they just agreed to purchase half a billion dollars worth of software and you're saying they can't afford to hire people to oversee the customization and support they might need with something like Linux?
Fools
Waste of tax dollars
Use a FOSS solution!
Linux would be way better
Simple corporate welfare
Shame on the military for using Windows in the first place!
BSOD
Crashing missiles
blah de blah de blah
Hereâ(TM)s a shocker. Windows may be more cost effective for a huge organization that already is using Windows. Let me repeat thatâ¦
Windows may be more cost effective.
How so? They already use it. Switching to Linux for the desktop would take several years, and be considerably more than $0.5B. With the possibility of it going very, very wrong. Not all Win -> Linux conversions go smoothly.
Why so long and costly? There are literally thousands of custom apps, large and small, that the Army runs on. Already written and in use. Everything from creating ID cards to allocating training munitions to various units. Currently, they run on Windows. What do you think they use now? Pencil and paper?All of these would have to be rewritten in some way. 2, 3, 5 10 years ago when all this stuff was being written, guess what? A viable Linux solution was but a wet dream. You had but 2 choices, Apple or Windows, for regular desktop deployment.
Now...of course you cannot roll out a whole new desktop environment all across the Army on the same day. There will be considerable overlap. So you also have to ensure interoperability between old and new as you roll out. The Army cannot stop business for the several years while this is going on.
You also have to ensure that all of your current hardware is supported. Are there Linux print drivers for the ID card printers? How about the digital camera for that?
Can we build a Linux solution to interface with the hospital patient records db? Sure...but we already have a Windows solution that works, and works well.
Can Civil Engineering find a Linux CAD solution, equivalent to AutoCAD, to design the plumbing and electrics for a new dormitory? Haven't seen one.
What about Public Affairs and the imaging shop? Are there Linux drivers for the digital Nikons they use? Oh..we have to have those written. But there are already native Win drivers for those...supported from the factory.
Laptops. Will Linux work on all the various laptops (with their custom mouse and video drivers) the Army deploys? Maybe...maybe not. But Windows already does. They might well have to buy a whole fleet of different laptops, if Linux can't be made to run effectively on the ones they have.
Linux may well be more stable, secure, and crash (slightly) less. But this is basically desktop use. So what! This is regular desktop use. It just doesnâ(TM)t matter if it is not the most absolute secure system on the planet. These systems are not facing the outside. And not running life critical apps. They don't steer missiles with Win2K.
Take all that into account (and this is but the merest tip of the iceberg) and staying with Windows might well be cheaper than trying to switch.
These meet most of your specifications. Except of course that they use the evil "Windows" OS from Uncle Bill.
Now all I need to tack down is the touch screen LCD interface for it
Here ya go - EarthLCD (LCD's and kits)
and EzScreen (Touchscreen kits)
We don't need industry middlemen jacking up prices so they can continue to take a slice anymore than we need buggy whips.
Unfortunately, we do. Those are the guys that front the money for producing and promoting the album. How many bands out there have enough cash upfront to buy serious studio time?
Now....te question is...do those middlemen take too much for their cut? Probably. That is what needs changing.