Spanking new $4.5 billion costing aircraft carrier runs .. Windows XP

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/28/2017 06:38 AM | source: | 40 comment(s)

A group of journalists got a tour on the newest British aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth. This Royal Navy pride costs around $4.5 billion, during the tour the journalists noticed something - the vunerable and unsupported Windows XP is running on it's computers.

Actuallty several displays in the control room of the ship run Windows XP noticed The Guardian and The Times.

“When you buy a ship, you don’t buy it today, you bought it 20 years ago,” according to Mark Deller, commander air on the Queen Elizabeth. He also notes that the specifications of the ship are what was good then, but that there’s always spare capacity in mind.

In the near future there will be upgrade and maybe some of them are already performed, according to Deller. The Royal Navy aircraft carrier has been in developed for nearly 20 years. The ship will also have a team of cyber specialists onboard that the have the capability of defending against hacks, according to Lt Cmdr Nick Leeson, senior warfare officer.

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David Lake
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#5447121 Posted on: 06/28/2017 06:54 AM

So in a few years they will move on to Vista and we will all die because of it.

RealNC
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#5447125 Posted on: 06/28/2017 07:04 AM

So in a few years they will move on to Vista and we will all die because of it.

Actually, no. When they press the button to launch the missiles, it'll just BSOD.

We're saved.

HitokiriX
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#5447126 Posted on: 06/28/2017 07:06 AM

It looks like they spared no expense whatsoever!!! :grin:

bigfutus
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#5447129 Posted on: 06/28/2017 07:19 AM

Money well spent

Dazz
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#5447130 Posted on: 06/28/2017 07:21 AM

I know why but i can't say, just certain types of software doesn't play nice with W7 onwards. One would think developing software again from scratch would be better but hey budget cuts.

heffeque
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#5447136 Posted on: 06/28/2017 07:55 AM

They probably just said... hey, Windows 10 has tons of backdoors too. Let's protect the system through other means. (I'm just guessing).

Personally I would have gone Linux on such an expensive boat.

JonasBeckman
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#5447138 Posted on: 06/28/2017 08:04 AM

Well they're using Windows now at least, not some floppy based DOS system.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/26/us-nuclear-arsenal-controlled-by-1970s-computers-8in-floppy-disks

(Course I guess that makes those systems a bit harder to hack into.)

heffeque
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#5447139 Posted on: 06/28/2017 08:05 AM

wavetrex
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#5447141 Posted on: 06/28/2017 08:12 AM

Many industrial control software still running just fine on Windows XP, and they are producing a lot of our "stuff".

These people are not browsing the internet or playing games on those computers, so for the purpose they have been built it works perfectly.

I personally see only one type of upgrade from XP... going straight to Linux.
All MS os-es after XP are unstable, bloated pieces of crap...
Check "WinSxS" - I rest my case.

cryohellinc
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#5447145 Posted on: 06/28/2017 08:47 AM

Many industrial control software still running just fine on Windows XP, and they are producing a lot of our "stuff".

They are using not because of security or some "special" tonfoil features, they use it because software was properly written Once/ Twice at best. And left untouched. Moving towards a new platform would require a rework, as a result additional investment. Thats why various industrial companies offices use up to date software, while their machines and manufacturing floor run on Windows XP ( XP being some of the most "modern" in those cases" ).

All MS os-es after XP are unstable, bloated pieces of crap...

Your subjective opinion. XP same as rest has its loopholes which can be easily hacked, with due time and effort. Only thing that saves those machines running old system is the fact Majority of them are disconnected from the web and can be accessed only locally.

MainFrame Alpha
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#5447148 Posted on: 06/28/2017 09:19 AM

come on people if the ship was bought 20 years ago makes sense the hardware used is something like Intel's Pentium pro or Pentium II, AMD-k6 maybe "good old days"

...Cyrix 6X86 "the outo correction keeps marking Cyrix as a typo error" :wanker:

... maybe the IBM PowerPC 604..those wore the days :nerd:

and you can go on with this 256MB ram..3DFX voodoo :nerd:

.. or nvidia RIVA 128
can't see anything more than an XP running on that.. it could run on these specs right?! :3eyes:

robintson
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#5447149 Posted on: 06/28/2017 09:48 AM

In the UK many of the companies still use XP even now in 2017. It tells us that the system is reliable and stable, otherwise they would have changed to windows 7 at least. Changing the OS will require new hardware to be bought and that is why they don't want to make the change, simply because it will cost them too much money and time.

R41DZ3R0
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#5447150 Posted on: 06/28/2017 09:53 AM

cryohellinc ..i'm with you bro. syhhhh... secrecy

Silva
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#5447157 Posted on: 06/28/2017 10:40 AM

Probably salvaged computers from somewhere else.
Either that or really stupid, as linux would have been a better choice.

rl66
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#5447158 Posted on: 06/28/2017 10:43 AM

So in a few years they will move on to Vista and we will all die because of it.

it depend on country...

In end 90's when i was in army we were passing from XP to a special distro of Linux, it take lot of time to change infrastructure but i think it was the right move.

It depend on who have the wallet

(Vote for the right person ...)

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