Topic: British Royal Navy Submarines Now Run Windows

[sam]

On his Government blog, Microsoft's Ian McKenzie announced today that the Royal Navy was ahead of schedule for switching their nuclear submarines to a customized Microsoft Windows solution dubbed 'Submarine Command System Next Generation (SMCS NG)' which apparently consists of Windows 2000 network servers and XP workstations. In the article, it is claimed that this decision will save UK taxpayers £22m over the next ten years. The installation of the new system apparently took just 18 days on the HMS Vigilant. According to the BAE Systems press release from 2005, the overall cost of the rollout was £24.5m for all eleven nuclear submarines of the Vanguard, Trafalgar and Swiftsure classes. Talk about staying with the sinking ship."

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/18/006226

ARGH!!!!!

[Simon]

Lol! 

[Clive]

   Where did we put that white flag? 

[GillE]

  Where did we put that white flag? 

Quite!

Aren't all Royal Navy ships issued with white flags as a matter of course?  The flags are especially for confrontations with nasty people who point guns at them, such as Iranians.

Just wait until our subs try to upgrade their technology and have to ring Micro$oft for authorisation!

[Simon]

Does that mean they'll navigate by Internet Explorer? 

[Rik]