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Apple Polishing Mac OS X for Uncle Sam?
polarfleece writes "A report on Macteens that the latest build of Panther contains strong evidence that it is being customized for U.S. Government applications.
I, for one, can't wait to see a whole lot of Apples being toted by gummint men (and women). Of course, do we REALLY want those gummint agents having access to the same technology we Apple users enjoy so much? On the other hand, to quote story author Clark Mueller, 'it just might be one of the more intelligent steps taken towards U.S. national defense.'"
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I, for one, can't wait to see a whole lot of Apples being toted by gummint men (and women).
Shouldn't that be: I, for one, welcome our new apple toting overlords!
I'm beginning to wonder why Apple would include items such as Department of Public Health and U.S. Army logos within the login panel, when individual customizations are usually done after installation?
Does microsoft embed specialized content for "preferred rollout" people in Windows as well?
Perhaps this is just a kitchen sink issue, and the release builds will not contain such images?
As a government employee, I'd love to see more Macs around here. This Windows stuff gets old after a while.
It's gubmint not gummint.
The US government is one of the single largest consumers of computer
systems in the world. Is it really surprising that Apple might make
an effort to court it?
*sigh* back to work...
As I am a researcher, not an "information worker," (irony at its finest) my argument has always been that I know better what I need to do my job, than does some IT clown who wouldn't know scientific computing if it bit him on the ass. Yet EVERY computer-related purchase (right down to a cable or toner cartridge) must receive IT approval at some central location before it then takes weeks/months to actually GET purchased.
One thing that has helped is that I have completely segregated our laboratory network from the hospital network (which, by the way, for the longest time used unsecured WiFi until I showed them how easy it was to rummage around), thereby avoiding having to suffer through the mandated computer "training," which I can assure you is a complete waste of time, energy and money.
The IT guys here all know me, and are amused by me attempts to keep the lab Mac-based. I, on the other hand, am always amused by the nonstop labor on their part to keep the wintel stuff from falling apart. (Blaster, anyone?)
I hope that this offical addition of OS X to the supported list will make it easier for me to buy some G5s soon... Then I can pass some G4s down the line to the "Medical Media" (graphics) department, who were forced to switch from Macs several years ago. Not a popular decision. Not in the least.
Theory and practice are the same in theory, but different in practice.
This sounds really wonderful for the implementation of Apple Hardware by Uncle Sam. But one Gov't market the likley won't be able to penetrate is that of the Navy/Marine Corp intranet! That is one bigass contract they are not going to be able to take advantage of because of the decision to standardize on Windoze 2000. "Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!"
/. story it's the largest federal IT project ever undertaken! The goal is to get as many people as they could up to a reasonable level of modernity. Some of those sorry fuckers are STILL using wordstar and the tech of similar vintage! So I guess that even Win2k would be somewhat of an improvementin those select cases. I'll bet however that some of the other branches are going to have to give up their brand new Apple hardware due to the new standardization (those mil outfits are a true tower of Babel!) are going to be *reeeealllly* unhappy!
As reported in this older
The Navy/Marine Corps intranet is being used as a template for the tech that the "Dept. Of Homeland Security" will use. Fortunatley, for the time being anyway, that department seems as largely fictional as the name is ominous. Fictional in the sense that the departments that are supposed to be talking to one another in a free flow of information...aren't. Not even to mention that in true 'big gov't' fashion the project is massively over budget and deadlines keep getting pushed back further and further.
Go Uncle Sam! *yeesh*
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
I used to support a three-letter-agency (I still can't bring myself to say it out loud :) ), and we were 100% NeXTSTEP on the desktop.
:) ), but they all wanted Microsoft Office on it -- that was the main reason they finally dropped NeXT for Windows (well, that, plus NeXT pretty much closing up shop to remake apple).
It was fantastic -- trivial to administer, and every machine was configured such that absolutely no user-specific data or configuration information was stored on the local desktop. You could log in to your officemate's computer, another one down the hall, or clear across the country, and everything was exactly as if you were at your own desk (though cross-country use was a little slow at times). This is something I've never seen done with Windows.
It also made changing out hardware in case of failure a no-brainer -- grab a spare slab out of the closet on your way to the person's office, power down, swap units, power up, leave. 15 minutes, tops.
Just about all the users loved the system, too (imagine! Secretaries, using UNIX!
Anyway, if the MacOS X boxes are anywhere near as reliable and easy to manage as NeXT was, then I'd really hope that Apple starts to push the enterprise angle stronger....
Of course, "everyone" is saying that the desicion to standarize on Win2k is wrong because it ties you to a single software vendor (Microsoft). Wouldn't the adoption of Apple tie you down to a single software *and* hardware vendor?
No sig
Well, as anyone can tell you, the movies always show the good guys using Macs, and the bad guys using Windoze.
So if government types start using Macs, that'll mean that the good guys are taking over! Woo! Hoo! (I love how the sun always shines in my own little reality...)
Whew! This water sure is cold!
Where else would you feel ashamed to admit that you work?
Well, besides OSDN.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
SCSI on osx is four times more slow than os9
still after two complet guttings.
they are on their third rewrite of the fiasco called IOKit.
OS9 is still the most popular mac os, but for the gov to use osx it will have to be at least one third the ios per second freebsd and openbsd can perform.
at least Infiniband cards (costing more than a 3K dual g5 mac) can avoid latency by going around the entire crappy mac osx iokit mess by using direct dma transmission. (no interrupts, no dependence on apples sluggish class-happy swill)
Its only cool if it runs the same os as the g4 towers!
in fact ALL the g4 towers for many months come preinstalled with Mac OS 9.2.2 as wells as OS X.
Why?
various http request loggers on massive sites shoe that os 9 is still more popular than os x!
thats wy apple paid engineers to get it workign again on all the g4 towers now sold in stores and on their web site.
its one of the main 7 "bullet point' features.
Steve jobs displayed a chart in his 2 hour demo in june that admitted that only 100,000 people in early january 2003 used os x at all.
and those were all assumedly the developers in janurt!
100,000 users tops in jan 2003 for osx according to jobs himself!
its in his video on the huge chart graph
but he said its finally at the halfway mark... 7 million os 9 and 7 million osx users this summer.
Countless applications only exist on os9, including many latency-critical audio VST plugins.
apple found out the hard way when sales plummeted in january when they pulled os 9.2.2 momentarily... and got hurt!
now os9 is on all the powerful g4 towers
i sure hope apple realizes these imacs could use os 9.2.2 as well.
(os 9.2.2 can issue 30,000 genuine different scsi io block requests per second through high end fibre-channel cards!.... os x is so crappy it was rewritten 9the scsi) three times and still is only 25% of that speed due to massive overhead and bloat.
plus the os9 has timeouts honored for each io, and the osx does not typically.
and os9 can have over 10,000 pending ios issued from interrupt level, in fact, and completed in pci interrupts if needed, and osx only allows about 64 ios pending.
osx is a slow ass toy compared to the low latency of os9 and its ability to run modern "gigasamplers'
a gigasampler stores thousnads of notes digitally on hard drives and loads only a little bit of the notes attacks into about a gig of ram, but has 100 gigabytes of audio notes on hard drives and issues thousands of time critical head seeks per second.
and it sucks on pokey slow osx iokit.
(its not freebsd's fault, nor mach 3 fault, its IOkit from apple's fault)
i sure hope apple notices that people want os9 as all the many web-click survey sites indicate.
Not that I blame them. One of the jobs of government is to promote local businesses. The US would do well to develop many different competing computer platforms, rather then have all their eggs in one (shoddy) basket.
I'm also pleased that some other governments (germany, some asian ones) are trying to do the same. Perhaps we may have a range of interoperating platforms after all!
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
No os9 web server in history has ever been rooted.
in fact SecurityFocus never listed any exploit for os9 remotely in over 5 or 6 years. (there was only one, lasso addon 3rd party craplet).
that is why army.mil web site has always used various versions of classic mac os, though theu are dabbling with the very rootable osx this summer on army.mil
their win2000 servers were penetrated twice according to two different NYT articles.
mac os9 is safe as safe can be for webservers
Surely Apple would be much more lilely to create a separate 'Government Edition installer' that wouldlet the customer define a logo for the start-up screen and a message etc.
I suspect this build has some demo code in it, or that someone is pulling someone's leg.
You obviously haven't used a Swingline 37860 Easy Touch. The Swinglines are so much more innovative than the Bostich and the designs are more elegant and forward-looking as well.
Most Bo$tich users bash Swinglines without ever having really used them beyond the ubiquitous consumer "Tot 50" model they had as a kid. Believe me, pro-level Swinglines can "ream-crunch" just as well as the Bostich line!
The old straw-man arguments over refill compatibility have long since been resolved and the myth that Swinglines cost more to buy and maintain was put to rest with the redesign of the famous 747 Business Stapler series.
When I was forced to use a "Bo$t-bitch" for my job, it jammed constantly--and always at the wrong time. My Swingline has been operating jam-free for 19 straight days (and I AM a pro user).
PS: Anyone hear about the possibility that SL might roll out a water-cooled electric at the Paris Office Machines Fair? That would blow the springs out of any current BS device!
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Have you guys read the EULA you have to agree when installing Mac OS X? It says that you can't use it in anyway in connection to flight controls or nuclear facilities, or any form of weapon of mass destruction. So much for putting Macs in to the coolest agencies...
:)
Seems to me that the reason why the Navy used Linux on their newly acquired Xserves were because they couldn't use Mac OS X without violating the contract!
Oh, but maybe you think this maybe be the reason to all this?
Or maybe it's because the government wants to become "hip" again?
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
Apple Polishing Mac OS X for Uncle Sam?
More like Uncle Scam?
iGrenade (shaped like everyone's favorite logo, in one of five fruity colors)
iMine (out of the box and into the ground in 10 minutes)
iTank (now with 40 GB hard drive to store 10,000 of your favorite songs while you drive around the desert and kill people)
What about it's good to have an ex VP on your board of directors to help you connect with the right people? Don't mean to minimize Apple's OS effort, but worth a thought...
But... but.... Apple, good!
Microsoft, bad!
Isn't Apple simply trying to follow / benefit from the rise of patriotism in America? I know a lot of people who would use these icons (particularly 15-year-old l33t ha>orZ who watch "Alias" and Stargate too much)...
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Think of this:
Government chooses Apple, gets 'integrated' solution and support for hardware and software. No more 'ping pong' between hardware and software vendors.
Also, Apple is the 'little guy' in that situation, they would be able to focus on their biggest client's needs, while MS has to be everything to everyone. If Uncle Sam says 'Jump' Apple would ask 'how high?' while Microsoft says 'maybe later!'
Using the 'underdog' is often the best way to get top-notch service, I work for a small company contracting on Citizens Bank, we all absoultely bust ass to make 'big brother' happy, while our larger competition has much bigger things to worry about. Sure, Citizens pays a bit more for us, but the VALUE is much better.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
I've been working as a web developer at a company completely dominated by Wintel-me-it-aint-so boxes and have been lucky enough to have a Mac G3.
I too found it amusing to watch the PC-zealots grinding themselves into dust again and again and again. Hell, I even got recruited to help out at the help desk during the recent virus hoo-haw. LOL!!!!
Keep fighting.
It's worth it.
www.macwebguru.com
AtomBombXP - guaranteed to explode.
There are NO Macs on NCC 1701(any letter).
That's a RIOT!
Always liked those displays - Okuda did some truly outstanding work for that show.
I stand (repeatedly) corrected!
Trust the Trekkies (Trekkers)(Tribbles?) to come through with not just chapter, but verse!
...both here and here .
C'mon people - a little Google can take you a long way.
QA implies some kind of quality to begin with.
as long as they have to carry the barbie make up case/toilet seat laptop around....
MacTEENS? MACTEENS?
What do they do - dance around singing 'Mamma Mia'?
Please deliver us from MACTEENS!
I am a civilian employee of a National Lab, where I use Macs all the time.
Occasionally I go to D.C. to attend workshops run by military organizations; these workshops attract about half-and-half civilian contractors and military (both in and out of uniform).
When I take my iBook, I am guaranteed to spend the first two or three breaks of every working session, giving demonstrations to closet Mac enthusiasts, curious onlookers, and the Windows Walking Wounded.