Re: [seul-edu] Advocacy: More to support Linux acceptance in schools...

["Joseph E. Arruda" <z@valinux.com>]

Moody is a gaping sieve of knowledge... ;) Well, he's a gaping
something, I am sure of that. Gaping loudmouth who does not do any
actual research into his writing is probably quite accurate.

I do know that there is plenty of Linux use in government, but the only
public use you will hear about is at the DOE level, with the national
labs (I know that my enployer, VA Linux, has installations at almost if
not all US National Labs, with the most prominent being Chiba City for
Argonne, and The Wall at Brookhaven -- both are Beowulf style HPC
clusters).  The problem with some of the general military/fed agencies
is meeting either Orange or Red Book (C2, non-networked and networked)
cert - this is a complex process and quite expensive, and anything but
efficient (its well documented that NT 4.0 was being sold to the gov as
a replacement for its predecessor long before it received a C2 rating --
and that rating was for non-networked machines..its a bloody mess
believe me).

I know that numerous firms have 'entertained' the idea of getting Linux
c2 cert, but as of yet, no real progress has been made.

I *know* the NSA and CIA have been 'dabbling', as well as possibly the
DISA, but nothing beyond anecdotal evidence exists (and for arguably
*good* reason)

z

Ryan Booz wrote:
> 
> > The only thing that caught my eye was this snip....
> > "Twenty-six percent (26%) of federal installations have reported use of
> > the Linux
> > operating system in their organization, as reported by IDC.  IDC also
> > estimates
> > that "most of the government's sophisticated, back-office computers will
> > be running
> > Linux by 2002.""
> 
> I was pointed to an article this week that said just the opposite of this
> statement. (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/FredMoody/moody.html)  The
> article says that Linux is not approved by the government, and therefore
> not used, for security reasons, making it a major set back for the
> community.  I found it hard to believe that there were no Linux computers
> in the Gov.  Now I realize that Moody is basically anti-Linux, but I was
> wondering if anyone know who's telling the truth - because I agree with Ray
> that this could be another argument to add to the list.
> 
> Just curious....
> 
> Ryan Booz
> Tech Coordinator
> Belleville Mennonite School