Editorial rant: USAF to standardize on Microsoft software

With all the crusading about homeland and national security you would think that executive decision makers would start to get a clue about security. Unfortunately it seems that some decision makers still don't understand security. Take the 'brass' at the USAF, United States Air Force, for example. SC Magazine reported in December that the USAF plans on consolidating 38 contracts by standardizing on Microsoft software. Air Force CIO John Gilligan explained to SC Magazine that the problem has to do with patching all the different kinds of computers the air for maintains. Someone should have mentioned SC Magazine's retrospective in the same issue which states “just as in 2003, Microsoft seemed to miss the mark with its latest attempt to address the inherent security problems of rising IT complexity.”

Gilligan only needed to take notice of all the organizations switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla because of the rash of security exploits in IE.
The SC Magazine article further goes on to state that the USAF expects to save over $100 million dollars in the next six years, but it fails to mention the $200 million the USAF will probably have to spend when Microsoft decides it's time for them to upgrade.

Does anyone remember the Navy ship that sat dead in the water – a glitch attributed to Microsoft software? It boggles my mind how the USAF expects to save money and be secure with Microsoft software when everyone who has ANY clue knows that Microsoft has a habit of doing what it wants, regardless if that means leaving security wide open, leaving off promised features, or releasing broken software – in the process trampling all competitors.

If the USAF standardized on Linux patching would be much simpler and less expensive than the Microsoft option. Microsoft's “Windows is cheaper than Linux” is a crock, everyone knows the studies are funded by Microsoft and skewed in Microsoft's favour. For example, the study mentions less patching required than Linux, but fails to note that Microsoft software suffers from more critical flaws, and there are a lot fewer software packages in a Windows install than on your typical Linux box.

I can just see the new year headline, “Cannot drop cruise missile, please upgrade to version 5.0.”