U.S. Government OS

[Greevous]

This has been bothering me of late... I know I read that the Navy tried some kind of Windows, and airplanes have used Linux, etc. But what OS does the U.S. government operate on? Do they have their own?

24 brought this to my attention because CTU seems to have their own type of OS (although fictional) that is nothing like Mac, Windows, or Linux. Is anyone out there employed by the government in any capacity that works on a government-issued computer? Unless, of course, that information is classified...:mad:

[Omnios]

The military trend is to try to utilize over the shelf stuff if possible to cut costs. They do however have there own programming language which can only be learnt in a military university or a security clearence,. Which is a bummer because it is very solid, good, and flexible. I forget what it was called but its pretty heavy duty

As to what they might use it will be something they can restricted Licence.

[Iandefor]

I don't know for sure, but I've visited a number of government offices in the Washington area. The vast majority run Windows, but in the ones with a collision with the physical sciences (ie, NOAA), you start to see more and more UNIX.

[AndyW]

The NSA created a linux distrobution http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/

[Greevous]

I forgot to mention this, but the NSA has a web page about SELinux, found here (http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/) (nsa.gov/selinux). As far as what they use, I have no idea. I haven't even read the entire article yet.


>>>Whoop, AndyW beat me to it. ;)

[FuturePilot]

I've also been to some Government offices in the D.C. area. They seem to like Windows 2000, either that or it's XP with the Classic theme. But I'm guessing that's just for office stuff. Who knows what they use behind closed doors.

[Greevous]

I've also been to some Government offices in the D.C. area. They seem to like Windows 2000, either that or it's XP with the Classic theme. But I'm guessing that's just for office stuff. Who knows what they use behind closed doors.

Yeah, unfortunately that is what I was looking for; just sounds like an interesting topic to me.

[Mateo]

i always laugh when ever they show a computer screen on TV/movies, it's always some completely fictional operation system that works nothing like real computers. It's funny because they must spend so much extra effort to animate in a computer screen than if they just shot a normal computer.

[Greevous]

Ha ha, that's so true. Like in 24, things just pop up, slide in place, wipe, fade, blink, etc. without any input from the operator of the computer. Almost as if reacting to the actor's dialogue, lol.

[FuturePilot]

This is kind of funny but also insightful on computers/code in movies/TV shows.
Linky (http://www.drivl.com/posts/view/494)

[Bragador]

Ha ha, that's so true. Like in 24, things just pop up, slide in place, wipe, fade, blink, etc. without any input from the operator of the computer. Almost as if reacting to the actor's dialogue, lol.

Remember that old movie "Hackers" ?

When I watched that as a teen I so wanted to become a hacker! Dressing up in cyberpunk-like clothes and hacking into computers with a 3d animated OS. Sweating as you see the enemy closing in on you in 3d. Also all the viruses were animated.

I never became a hacker nor did I ever dressed like that but real life hackers are isolated geeks that stare at lines and lines of codes lol and viruses are truly boring creatures.

You rock, Hollywood!

[mysticrider92]

This has been bothering me of late... I know I read that the Navy tried some kind of Windows, and airplanes have used Linux, etc. But what OS does the U.S. government operate on? Do they have their own?

I think they had a bit of bad experience with Win NT and I doubt they will try that again... I know my dad who works for a government agency uses XP Pro. Linux/Unix is probably more popular for certain "behind closed doors" work.

[Greevous]

So my question now is: Do assistants, aids, and secretaries use Windows (2000, XP, Vista, whatever), even with all of its vulnerabilities and weaknesses? Those are the people with the President's schedule, speeches, and other important documents, right?

[corstar]

One thing I've noticed all the US shows do is have beeps and weird sound effects for the simplest tasks. Like zooming into an image.
Another thing, the backgrounds are always dark and colour scheme always monochrome...what's with that?

I have noticed a wide use of KDE in heroes.

[MrHorus]

i always laugh when ever they show a computer screen on TV/movies, it's always some completely fictional operation system that works nothing like real computers.

I like when they put a suspect's fingerprint into a database and hundreds of pictures flash by until it stops on the one of the suspect.

Clearly that functionality is coming in the next release of MySQL... :)

[Adrenal]

Keep in mind, if you take into account the time between each season, 24 is now set sometime around 2015.

[stalker145]

The military trend is to try to utilize over the shelf stuff if possible to cut costs.

True. Hardware, software, and support at commercial off-the-shelf (COTS).

They do however have there own programming language which can only be learnt in a military university or a security clearence,. Which is a bummer because it is very solid, good, and flexible. I forget what it was called but its pretty heavy duty

As to what they might use it will be something they can restricted Licence.
HA HA HA HA HA HA... whew, oh, man, good one. :lol:
You were correct with your first statement. If you do a Netcraft (http://news.netcraft.com/) check of a military server (usmc.mil, army.mil, etc) you will find that they run pretty standard servers. The preponderance of work computers run Win2K, especially here on the NMCI (Navy and Marine Corps Intranet) network, which is public knowledge. From my experience in the Army and working with the Air Force, they also run Windows.
As for the classified networks, I will leave that to everyone's personal conspiracy theory since we can't talk about that with the uninitiated :-\"

[mips]

http://www.terrybollinger.com/dodfoss/dodfoss_html/index.html
http://www.terrybollinger.com/stenbitmemo/stenbitmemo_html.html

Thats just the DoD. OSS is common in Govenrment but you won't see it on desktops unless it is some department involved in scientific research.

[Omnios]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Omnios http://ubuntuforums.org/images/uf/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2162428#post2162428)
They do however have there own programming language which can only be learnt in a military university or a security clearence,. Which is a bummer because it is very solid, good, and flexible. I forget what it was called but its pretty heavy duty

As to what they might use it will be something they can restricted Licence.

Actually The newest Canadian navy ships software was based on the Military ships and I remember hearing this and on Tv.