[Am-info] Gates gets governmemnt security at tax payer expense

[Erick Andrews]

On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 01:55:58 -0700, Hans Reiser wrote:

>A more serious worry is that the department of homeland security has 
>standardized on windows, and is now trying to make it secure, which I 
>fear will perhaps wind up being an enormous subsidy for the windows OS.
>
>If you guys are going to make remarks about our intelligence services 
>being morons (they are), keep in mind that at a time when the Russians 
>and Chinese and Europeans and everyone competent is moving from windows 
>to linux for their intelligence services, we are standardizing on 
>windows.  Yes, they are the least competent intelligence agency in the 
>world, and their ability to select an OS without knowing or caring that 
>it has a few security problems is one of the measures of it.  They are 
>so far behind the Russians in skill level, it is a sad joke.....
>
>Hans

It is sad.  I would like to see the system evaluation criteria that were used
for DHS.  If they settled on one and only one OS, Windows, they're fools
to put all their eggs in one basket.

What I still grapple with is how so many people are just so set on Windows.  
It's not as if anyone is holding a gun to them.  It's like the classic jingo you've
been hearing the past few years:  can't "think out of the box", yet there are
a few more choices now than there were just a few years ago.  Let's see, there
are Linux, Lindows, Macintosh and eComStation systems.  There is OpenOffice,
Star Office and Lotus SmartSuite that run on non-Windows platforms.  You can 
even go to Wal-Mart, of all places, and buy a hardware-only PC.  Then you can
go to Amazon and get an assembly manual to write your own operating system code, 
if you are so inclined.

I guess most of are not so inclined to write system code, but it seems to me that it
really doesn't take much more than a little enthusiasm or interest to look for more 
than just Windows and save yourself serious money.  When you get through paying
for all the upgrades, the virus and spyware stuff that's become essential, the time 
and money wasted on Windows applications that no longer work with new releases, 
and the security risks of having important information stolen, you should wish you
did get something else.  And if your company is paying the freight, suggest something
better.

So why would DHS settle on (I assume mostly) Windows?  It's a virus magnet.
Is it ignorance?  Lack of education?  Fond to squander our tax dollars?  Some
Redmond conspiracy?  Or maybe it's just plain stupidity.  It must be the latter if
they're trying to make it secure.

-- 
Erick Andrews