The British Navy Runs on Windows XP
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So the entire article was nonsense and not based on fact anyway? Ok...
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@Jimmy9008 said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
I actually read this morning that the ship in fact does not use XP, but uses a proprietary system developed for the by BAE Systems. The older ships however do use XP version specifically built for Warships, which eventually will be replaced or overhauled with that developed by BAE.
Then to what was the ministry of defence responding in their quotes?
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@Breffni-Potter said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
So the entire article was nonsense and not based on fact anyway? Ok...
Well, they did use Spiceworks staff as "experts" to quote, so, not a super great publication. Not that the person they quotes is bad, but going to a random small marketing firm to get quotes for IT security is... fishy.
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@Jimmy9008 said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
I actually read this morning that the ship in fact does not use XP, but uses a proprietary system developed for the by BAE Systems. The older ships however do use XP version specifically built for Warships, which eventually will be replaced or overhauled with that developed by BAE.
This might make it worse: "Much of the Royal Navy fleet uses a specialized, hardened version of Windows 2000,"
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This might be even worse yet, instead of an OS from a serious OS vendor, they are going with a new, untested, closed, single use case OS from a vendor with no expertise in the space: "“They [the Queen Elizabeth class] will also be the first ships to be built with a BAE Systems designed, new state-of-the-art operating system called Shared Infrastructure, which will be rolled out across the Royal Navy’s surface fleet over the next ten years. Shared Infrastructure revolutionises the way ships operate by using virtual technologies to host and integrate the sensors, weapons and management systems that complex warships require. By replacing multiple large consoles dedicated to specific tasks with a single hardware solution, the amount of spares which are required to be carried onboard is reduced, significantly decreasing through-life costs.”
Windows XP would EASILY be better than this.
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So what was the source of so many places reporting Windows XP?
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@scottalanmiller said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
So what was the source of so many places reporting Windows XP?
Apparently a technician as a joke set his desktop-wallpaper to be the default XP one (greenfield) It was seen on a documentary, people asked the defence secretary (who would not have a clue on the spot) and gave a non committal answer about he's not sure.
Then the internet and media frenzy took off.
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@scottalanmiller said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
This might be even worse yet, instead of an OS from a serious OS vendor, they are going with a new, untested, closed, single use case OS from a vendor with no expertise in the space: "“They [the Queen Elizabeth class] will also be the first ships to be built with a BAE Systems designed, new state-of-the-art operating system called Shared Infrastructure, which will be rolled out across the Royal Navy’s surface fleet over the next ten years. Shared Infrastructure revolutionises the way ships operate by using virtual technologies to host and integrate the sensors, weapons and management systems that complex warships require. By replacing multiple large consoles dedicated to specific tasks with a single hardware solution, the amount of spares which are required to be carried onboard is reduced, significantly decreasing through-life costs.”
Windows XP would EASILY be better than this.
I actually thought that too. Thousands, if not millions of hours has been put in to XP. All the teams to develop it, all the teams testing it, all the users over the years using it, reporting issues, which are then patched with updates etc... all of that is far beyond what BAE could build. No way has BAE put millions of hours in to this. XP probably could have been a better choice. What has been built is a guess though, as I don't know it, perhaps its so 'different' and 'secure' for 'reasons' that XP, W10, various Linux distros etc were worse...
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From the Telegraph: "But Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, insisted the ship's systems were safe because security around the computer software on the aircraft carrier is "properly protected".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's not the system itself, of course, that's vulnerable, it's the security that surrounds it.
"I want to reassure you about Queen Elizabeth, the security around its computer system is properly protected and we don't have any vulnerability on that particular score.""
If those are genuine quotes, the Navy has the issues we are actually concerned about, XP or no XP.
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This "defence source" definitely goes against the claim that a new OS was just created for this: "A defence source told the newspaper that some of the on-boar hardware and software "would have been good in 2004" when the carrier was designed, "but now seems rather antiquated"."
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@scottalanmiller said in The British Navy Runs on Windows XP:
This "defence source" definitely goes against the claim that a new OS was just created for this: "A defence source told the newspaper that some of the on-boar hardware and software "would have been good in 2004" when the carrier was designed, "but now seems rather antiquated"."
Indeed. But with most things, its outdated as soon as you ordered the kit. Probably spinning disks, rather than SSDs - gets hit by a wave in the wrong place and the head on for a few platters move... warship dead! But hey, they are cheaper - just like a particular type of cladding.
