Re: [Fed-Talk] Apple's security belly-flop
Re: [Fed-Talk] Apple's security belly-flop
- Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Apple's security belly-flop
- From: Amanda Walker <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:28:19 -0500
On Feb 25, 2006, at 10:08 AM, Joel Esler wrote:
There needs to be more OSX in Fed. I used to be a contractor for the
Army, they used to have these little machines in the orderly room, or
the platoon office that were 98 or 2000 and what not.. slow as
hell....
All they used it for was Email, Excel, Word, web.. etc.. there is
absolutely no reason that those machines couldn't have been macs.
I thought very much the same thing when I started working on an Army
contract. Today, I'm not sure I'd agree--there are reasons, but they
are not technical ones.
[ strictly personal opinion follows ]
There's an old joke: "there's the right way, the wrong way, and the
Army way." We can laugh at it, but there's a nugget of truth in
there, and it's not just the Army--it applies across services and
agencies.
There's a whole government-wide ecosystem of people, tasks, funding,
and process that is oriented towards Windows on the desktop, ranging
from STIGs to IAVA to individual checklists at IT departments in
local offices. Given how the government moves people into and out of
positions as they are promoted, and how change-averse the acquisition
process is to anything that doesn't do absolutely everything its
predecessor system did, bugs and all, what appears to end up counting
more than technical merit is familiarity. Macs occupy niches in that
ecosystem (in some places quite devoted and secure niches to be
sure), but expanding beyond those niches has been a struggle as long
as I've been involved with federal Mac customers (i.e., since the 80s).
The choice in many cases comes down to "use Windows and put up with
it, or use Macs and have to keep explaining, over and over, to each
new person who bubbles through, why you're using Macs instead of what
he/she is familiar with from elsewhere."
And this doesn't apply just to desktops: look at the Commander's
Digital Assistant, which was prototyped in Linux and then re-
implemented on top of Windows Mobile. Why? Well, I've only heard
scuttlebutt, but that scuttlebutt was pretty consistent that the
reason was that support & IT personnel already knew how to support
Windows-based PDAs, and retooling their organizations and processes
to support a Linux-based device was too time and labor intensive. It
would not surprise me if this were true.
All that said, however, the landscape may not be as bleak at it might
seem. Microsoft is running into the same problems (they've been
trying to end-of-life Windows 2000 for a while, but there are still
way too many government desktops running it to let them get away with
it). I've seen signs of rumblings here and there to the effect of
"well, if we're going to have to re-train and buy new stuff anyway,
let's take another look at Macs." I view that as a very promising sign.
However, with all due respect to Apple Federal--I'm not trying to
beat up on anyone here--what worries me is that the government market
often seems to be the red-headed stepchild of Apple marketing.
XServe gets very infrequent updates and no media attention, even in
markets like DC--I hear radio ads for planes and missiles during
drive time; why not a 30-second spot about the budget advantages of
using XServes instead of Windows Server boxes with per-seat license
taxes? Apple does great industrial design: how about a laptop with a
thicker skin, like a ToughBook? (ToughMac?) And so on. This is
probably a familiar soapbox to many readers here :-), but Microsoft,
Dell, etc. seem to get eyes-and-ears time of people who turn the
procurement gears a lot more effectively than Apple does most of the
time. Take a look at FOSE, for example: Apple's presence was a VAR
with a 10x10 booth along the wall; Windows PC manufacturers and
distributors were half of the entire show floor. Sure, people who
are already Apple customers may make it out to MacWorld Expo, but to
someone weighing purchasing decisions, they look around FOSE, MILCOM,
etc. and they don't see Apple--except for the drawings for a free iPod.
Amanda Walker
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