Mac President Finds a PC White House
10:18 am, January 22nd, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
No laptops. Old PCs with outdated software and broken keyboards. No Internet. No phones. Though his administration has been described as representing “an iPhone kind of future,” the first few hours for Barack Obama staffers were the worst kind of analog past.
According to a Washington Post article:
“One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used.
The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing.
Several people tried to route their e-mails through personal accounts.
But there were no missing letters from the computer keyboards, as Bush officials had complained of during their transition in 2001.”
Looks like time they started shouting, “Yes, we Mac!”
Via Washington Post
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News | Comment on this article
So now they’re in a bind, aren’t they? They want to come off as responsible and fiscally conservative, watching carefully every dime of taxpayer money. How will they justify buying Macs? Cheapest laptop is $999, cheapest PC netbook is $300 or so.
Oops.
Thomas, on January 22nd, 2009 at 10:52 am
[...] Mac President Finds a PC White House: “ [...]
Mac President Finds a PC White House | Michaels Blog, on January 22nd, 2009 at 11:12 am
@Thomas: I’m sure Apple would give them a nice discount, being the government and all. Also, many of them probably have their own setups already.
I have to ask, though, is the state of tech at the White House a fault of the Bush Administration, or more a fault of paranoid security people?
Cameron Talley, on January 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Thomas,
Time is worth a LOT more than you think. It’s stupid to buy a tool that costs less but makes you spend a lot more time getting the correct solution. So that supposed $700 difference (you really can’t do much with a $300 computer) quickly gets eaten up in wasted time with Windows and Windows apps.
Note that I’m a Computer Systems Analyst that supports both systems so I know what I’m talking about. Macs require less support and most of the time getting the job done takes less time on a Mac.
So why don’t we all use Macs where I work? Politics. Just like with everything else you know but could be better but management goes another way. It happens all the time.
OlsonBW, on January 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
1. if the computers work, it’s worth the price. and besides these are the same peeps that will spend $100 on a toliet seat.
2. apple would probably give them a very nice discount cause of how many they would buy
3. given the security paranoid and the lack of mac malware, i’m surprised they aren’t already using macs, if only due to the belief that macs are more secure
Lucas, on January 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
You can’t compare the computing power of a netbook to a mac which costs $999, which I assume you are referring to the base macbook, or a mac mini.
Nik, on January 22nd, 2009 at 5:47 pm
cheapest mac is 999 cheapest pc is 300 is BS!
cheapest PC might be 300, or less, but what will you do with a 512 mb pc with small hard disk and slow CPU + shitty screan? one should compare similar types of machines: apple is at least core 2 due, min. 1gb ram, + all the software on board + bluetooth + wifi, + dvd reader and writer and so on and so on..
let’s be fair and let’s be truthful and let’s be correct!
benedetto, on January 23rd, 2009 at 1:50 am
Of course, keep in mind the residual value of Macs vs. PCs – thats the REAL cost factor. That $300 PC will be worth $20 in 3 years, while that $999 Mac will be worth $600. Once the computer has a little age and should be updated to a newer machine, our White House staff can resell the machines and then we the taxpayers will be paying far less for the replacement units.
Thats the thing the PC people never consider in their ‘Macs are more expensive’ arguement. Yes, a Mercedes is more expensive than a Kia, but when you go to trade it in, you’ll find your better value was the Mercedes, when you retain 60% of your value as opposed to 5%.
PCS suck.
Rob, on January 23rd, 2009 at 4:20 am
Laptops are a huge security issue. Macs are tough to hack, unless your hacking one you found at the bus stop.
Stabby McStabster, on January 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
The White House is a mess for 3 basic reasons:
1) The Bushies were a bunch of Luddites. Computers were for the ‘Intellectual Elites.” That wasn’t politics, they actually believed that.
2) Controlling information can be like the proverbial cat herding. Instead of actually using some intellectual capital on figuring out security, Bush just prohibited using advanced technology in the White House.
3) A closely controlled, out of date system prevented staff from using the government system. That “forced” them to use private avenues, which eliminates any publicly owned records. These people weren’t stupid; they were diabolical.
The miserable state of the system may actually be a benefit to Obama. It has to be a lot cheaper to just build a new system from scratch than to try and update the mess they now have. They can have 85 billion firewalls, diskless workstations, actually issue notebooks with real encryption, lock down systems that prohibit changes, Read-only DVDs, and even require special thumb drives that won’t work without proper encryption keys.
In other words, Bush’s neglect will allow Obama to build a top notch network that otherwise couldn’t be justified.
imajoebob, on January 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I do not blame the President. I love my Mac and I would buy 10 Macs before I would buy a PC anytime. The cost is irrelevant.
Brandy, on January 24th, 2009 at 11:52 am