Emergency Response System Undermined by Microsoft

Working Linux Emergency Response System Undermined at Homeland Security by Microsoft Lobbying

Posted by tadelste on Mar 24, 2006 10:44 PM
Lxer, Originally Linux Journal; By Tom Adelstein

LAMP is at the heart of Emergency Response Network Systems and is saving lives. But recently, Microsoft maneuvered into taking the system away from a Free Software vendor. As Jim Lytle put it:

It concerns some information about the deployment of our product which looks like they are trying to replace it with Microsoft solution at DHS. In violation of many FARs (Federal Acquisition Regulations) in regards to COTS, commercial-off-the-shelf, technology etc. They have awarded a contract to an existing vender to "develop" a copy of our product. In addition to the utter disregard for the "Small Business" set-aside programs and other directives they are going ahead at the risk of providing a developmental system. This system is not tested and has no proven track record and doesn't currently exist.

Keep in mind, this is the Emergency Response Network System that worked so well during 911. I believe the failure to deploy since 911 has put our nation at risk and harmed such efforts as advanced hurricane notification that battered Florida, the Gulf and New Orleans: All because it's Linux and Microsoft can't have that.

More ...

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/57181/index.html

This just emphasizes how this "war on terra" is more about profit and corporate control for many people than it is about actual security.

If you follow this story -- and it has a long history at this point -- you'll notice how this is a major aspect of the government's non-response to security concerns since 9/11.

An interesting experiment.

Yeah, okay.

That's pretty damn funny considering the connections you used to post that message inevitably transferred across a *nix based system at some point.

If you haven't seen the new XGL/Compiz live cd, you don't know what you are missing. Now that is an experiment.

The contents of your subject line proves you haven't committed to using a desktop linux for more than 5 minutes.

I'm not kidding about this; download and burn the Knoppix live cd (link, and follow the instructions in this PDF. It will let you use linux without changing your computer at all, you will be suprised.

The features of Vista that MS is touting as so special to the general public by encouraging the spread of screenshots, i.e. the eye-candy, is essentially stolen work. Oh, they did it in-house, but the idea for it came out of a conference that resulted in the development of XGL and things like Compiz.

MS says Open Source is bad. Bad for their profit margins, yes, when the FOSS community develops an idea and distributes it for no charge, but they use the ideas that come out of the FOSS community regularly and then try to claim them as their own. Gates and company have been doing this since they first started.

That is cool, btw. The distro overall is lacking a lot, but it allows you to play with the XGL features very well. Since it is essentially pre-Alpha at this point, the lacking part is to be expected of course.

in terms of deployed UI applications for the general public
(I know they're working on changing that, but that's a long ways away)

But it is a zillion times more stable for back-end applications and server support than Windows or Mac will ever be.

Even OS/X I can crash, and certainly XP.

I don't think I have ever managed to crash my Linux machine.

I developed software first on mainframes, then on DOS-based micros, and didn't end up developing for Mac until the mid-90s, and now do Java and either Windows or Mac, and I have no vested interest as a Linux developer (which I do not claim to be) but I have found Linux to be the most stable thing I'd ever want anything critical to run on, certainly an emergency response system.

Or put it this way - the thought of a Windows-based ERS would seriously concern me, particularly if I had the option of getting one on Linux.