To: JC Jaros who wrote (50799 ) 10/10/2000 4:29:15 PM From: DiViT Respond to Dell Computer said Tuesday that it will supply servers, workstations, desktops and notebooks for 350,000 people in the Navy and Marine Corps.massive overhaul of the Navy's computer systems that will provide high-speed connections to a central intranet. No dollar figure was provided for Dell's portion of the multiyear contract, which is valued at $6.9 billion and will be shared by several vendors. 360,000 Navy and Marine personnel by giving them access to a common intranet and multiple databases . "And this is just the Navy. --- You guys seem to think this is some win for MS. Why? --- Most of those desktops are front office (mostly browser) . The Navy isn't going to need or get more Office licenses with EDS than they would have with IBM. There were 3 cos. bidding. EDS, IBM, and one other (I forgot who). The bid wasn't some broad 'outfit the Navy with an IT infrastructure' . It was a lot more specific. --- Jeez, that you folks get excited these days over a branch of gov't upgrading their PCs is testimony to what sad shape this whole state of affairs is becoming. You're sounding like SGI shareholders. --- You've already got an investment in that direction. MS took a monopoly money equity position in Newport News Shipbuilding and got some contract to outfit a ship with an all Windows solution. The reason (aside from the Newport News Shipbuilding money) was the Navy is understaffed and cannot retain trained IT people. Regardless of every other consideration to cost, they'll pay through the nose for a system that a chimp can operate. --- The ship though became dead in the water and needed to be towed back into port. More recently, there was a similar venture and failure between MS and the Navy, as I recall. --- The bottom line is that the Navy needs MS 'Desktops' because of a need for MS Office. Their not going to be using MS boxes to guide missles (heaven forbid). They need 'browsers' and (because of the MS monopoly) they need 'Office' in their buildings. This isn't some .NET win. It doesn't open any doors for broader W2k acceptance. It has nothing to do with other branches of gov't or even other branches of the military . --- The US Navy upgrades their 486s and you guys think it's a 'win'. --- Anyway, heck, for all you know, those desktop's will be Compaq or NTAP thin clients running Office services over the network at a greatly reduced licensing cost. --- The simpler the solution, the better. -JCJ "
