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Macs Ostracized on Capitol Hill

Posted by pudge on from the i-just-wish-it-were-someone-other-than-kennedy dept.

jonerik writes "Wired News has an article today on the last Apple holdout on Capitol Hill, Ngozi Pole. Pole, the office and systems administrator at Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D-MA) Boston and Washington D.C. offices, argues that the Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA), which makes technology recommendations to senators, wants to make its job as easy as possible by pushing Windows-based applications as much as they can. According to the article, 'The SAA allocates $250,000 per six-year term to each senator. The department had hoped Pole would use the budget to replace aging Macs in Kennedy's offices. Instead, Pole will spend the remainder of his budget through 2003 filling Senator Kennedy's Washington office with new flat-panel iMacs.' Unsurprisingly, the SAA declined to comment."

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. i agree: no macs for public servents by tps12 · · Score: 0, Troll
    I don't think Macs have a place in government. Neither does Windows, however. It is just wrong to give all that business to a company, and amounts to "playing favorites" with taxpayers' money, which is specifically banned in Article 1 of the Constitution ("Being the government of All Citizens, Congress shall chuse No Specific Producer of any Material or Item required for Governance").

    The only moral use of funds is to populate politicians' offices with Linux boxen. Linux has shown time and again that it has the firepower to deal with the wear and tear of political life. Programs like gpoll and qtvote are light years ahead of analogous products on the archaic MAC and Windows 95 platforms.

    In conclusion, Linux in this case has possession of both the moral and technological high grounds.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  2. You've got to be kidding/trolling... by Soulfader · · Score: 1, Troll
    I can understand that some people are one-issue voters, but over a freaking Mac ? Couldn't you pick an issue that really mattered to the health and well-being of the American public more than what computer platform its legislators are using in their offices?

    Computers are tools to help us do life. They are not life itself. Go play frisbee, dammit. =)