Serious investigations into UNIX and Windows

[Kevin Lyons]

Charles Oppermann wrote:

 > Well, let's look at the facts a little.  The USS Yorktown was 
disabled for 2
 > hours, not 3 days.  This was because an operator entered a zero into 
a data
 > field, which the database software wasn't able to handle and wound up
 > crashing.
 >
 > If an application performs an operation that attempts to divide by 
zero on
 > UNIX or Windows, the process crashes if it doesn't set up an exception
 > handler.

Yes, look at the facts. The ship had been towed in several times due to 
nt failures.  I have never had my system reboot or crash because of a 
usermode divide by zero- I guess thats another 'feature' of nt.

Microsoft has done an admirable job of covering/obscuring the problem. 
Following link is an article with more detail talking with guys on the 
ship who have to service it.  I  have snipped out a few details.

http://www.gcn.com/archives/gcn/1998/july13/cov2.htm

-----------------------------
But according to DiGiorgio, who in an interview said he has serviced 
automated control systems on Navy ships for the past 26 years, the NT 
operating system is the source of the Yorktown’s computer problems.

NT applications aboard the Yorktown provide damage control, run the 
ship’s control center on the bridge, monitor the engines and navigate 
the ship when under way.

“Using Windows NT, which is known to have some failure modes, on a 
warship is similar to hoping that luck will be in our favor,” DiGiorgio 
said.


Ron Redman, deputy technical director of the Fleet Introduction Division 
of the Aegis Program Executive Office, said there have been numerous 
software failures associated with NT aboard the Yorktown.

“Refining that is an ongoing process,” Redman said. “Unix is a better 
system for control of equipment and machinery, whereas NT is a better 
system for the transfer of information and data. NT has never been fully 
refined and there are times when we have had shutdowns that resulted 
from NT.”

The Yorktown has been towed into port several times because of the 
systems failures, he said.

“Because of politics, some things are being forced on us that without 
political pressure we might not do, like Windows NT,” Redman said. “If 
it were up to me I probably would not have used Windows NT in this 
particular application. If we used Unix, we would have a system that has 
less of a tendency to go down.”


Redman has a different perspective. “If it were me, I wouldn’t say all 
the things that Tony [DiGiorgio] has said out of discretion and 
consideration for being a long-term employee,” he said. “But I will say 
this about Tony, he’s a very bright engineer.”

“Everybody plays the obedience role where you cannot criticize the 
system,” said DiGiorgio, a self-described whistle-blower. “I’m not that 
kind of guy.”