Ironic...
...that the Admirals are talking about the -current- state of affairs called NMCI, which was ostensibly to rid the DoN of the then-legacy state of affairs. (I.e. that each NAS/MCAS, base, lab, depot, etc. etc. - even divisions at any site which had different sponsors - could have wildly different systems, services, data formats, etc. It was a mess, unless one really liked systems integration. :) )
However, NMCI is due to expire in Oct. 2010, and with that ends the current contractual lock-in to MS2K, Office2K, Outlook - and other aspects of the (MS) server-based environment. The open environment envisioned in the article is a services-based one, the Naval Networking Environment 2016 (NNE-2016). Although the NMCI contract will likely be extended a few years, it'll still be a huge grunt to "open up" at the desktop level everywhere. Oh well. The USN likes to pop off a shot across a bow every now and again.
(Besides, Vulture Central reported another USN IT bow-shot almost 3 years ago at <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/17/navy_counts_servers/>. Is there still a potential Novell lock-in for the future, hmm?)
A nitpick: The CHIPS interview was not with VADM Edwards but his civilian counterpart, Robert Carey. Since flag officers normally move on to different duties* every 2-3 years, it'll be much more Carey's responsibility than not to "make it so".
*Official USN-speak is "rotate through different positions" but this being El Reg, well you know... there really isn't supposed to be a PH angle here.