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Re: Open-source opportunuity?



On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 06:10:12PM +0200, Geoff Thurman wrote:
> On Tuesday 09 September 2003 5:09 am, Pigeon wrote:
> > From the current issue of RAIL magazine:
> >
> > "Network Rail is seeking tenders to replace its Windows NT system,
> > which Microsoft abandons in December. NR has 10,000 desktop
> > computers, 2,900 laptops and 300 servers - the equivalent of one
> > computer for each track mile it owns!"
> 
> This is worse than it sounds. Surely, much of the actual track 
> maintenance is still contracted out? So there will be other computers 
> out there somewhere, duplicating much of the information and many of 
> the tasks. 

Yes, though they are gradually bringing some of the track maintenance
back in house. Part of the reason for doing this is the difficulties
arising from the fact that that information is not shared, for
non-technical reasons.

> Then there are the computers run by the (numerous) train 
> operating companies and freight operating companies. So how many 
> computers per mile of track? And does each computer have an operator?

Well, they're mostly desktop systems, so I'd guess not, though they
each have a user.

-- 
Pigeon

Be kind to pigeons
Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F

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