Author Topic: Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?  (Read 515 times)

sime

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With the recent blackout in north America and various critical plants / transport systems being compromised because of insecure software use.

Will the powers that be switch to Open Source software or will they bury their heads in a blanket of red tape and bureaucracy?

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/03/09/03/2041231.shtml?tid=11

Sime
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jasonlane

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Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?
« Reply #1 on: 4 September 2003, 16:38 »
I think in the US the "powers" that be may continue to bury their heads in the sand. Although if key people are pissed off enough I'll think M$ could have a bullet with it's name on.

In Europe and the rest of the world it seems, I think they'll ditch M$ in a heartbeat, well hasn't that movement already started?

There should be restraining order for M$ products:

"Any product bearing the name of the Microsoft corporation shall not under any circumstances be within 10,000 metres of places considered vital to public well being and safety.

The following are considered "out of bounds":

• Power Stations (nuclear, hydroelectric, coal, gas or oil fired)"
• Hospitals, nursing homes, recovery centers.
• Centers for the control of transportation systems, such as; railway, airtraffic, road and shipping control rooms
• Research facilities of any type.
• Schools, Colleges and Universities
• Libraries, Museums and places of public interest
• Any fiscal or banking system
• Public, private and military communication systems, including satalite networks, mobile telephony and the internet

Failure to comply with said restraining order will result in fines of up to $100 Billion dollars"

[ September 04, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

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Refalm

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Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?
« Reply #2 on: 4 September 2003, 19:58 »
I happen to know that my power company uses AIX, my ISP Sun Solaris, and my local hospital GNU/Linux.
Windows may be king of the desktop, but for mission-critical enterprise computers/servers, alternatives are master.

Calum

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Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?
« Reply #3 on: 4 September 2003, 20:43 »
aix and solaris aren't any more open source than mswindows is.
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jasonlane

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Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?
« Reply #4 on: 4 September 2003, 21:32 »
quote:
Originally posted by Calum:
aix and solaris aren't any more open source than mswindows is.



hmmmm. but they follow totally different design paradigms.

[ September 04, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

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Calum

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« Reply #5 on: 5 September 2003, 01:30 »
however the topic is about open source and to be honest i place a lot of value in the open source development model (as put forward by ESR) and i am not sure how important a sound system architecture is compared with the open source development model.

solaris and aix are still 'cathedral' projects, not 'bazaar' ones, like MacOS in fact.
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jasonlane

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Can open-source software prevent the next big blackout?
« Reply #6 on: 5 September 2003, 03:16 »
Nice article Calum
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