Polinux?
Secure Linux desktop begins shipping to UK police force
A pilot scheme which could see police forces throughout England and Wales switching to Linux desktops has kicked off with delivery of the first systems to the West Yorkshire force...The reason I have trouble imagining this is that, traditionally, computer systems provided to the police (or any government body) in the UK have to be (a) completely unreliable and (b) vastly overpriced. A Linux-based system would make meeting these criteria more of a challenge. I guess they'll have to screw it up in some other way....
...It is however the approach and architecture of the system that is most interesting... The user-facing part of the system consists of an ultra low cost machine being supplied by the Telford office of Taiwanese company GCI, price £299, including a smart card reader.
These clients connect via VNC to the business end of the system, which can include legacy Windows systems, making it easier for customers to transition to open source. The clients themselves are 'stateless,' so a user can log on with their smartcard from any machine on the network, and get immediate access to their personal desktop, which includes Openoffice. For police work this has clear advantages, because it potentially makes mobile connectivity a lot easier.
