Submitting Federal Proposals Requires Windows

Petronius Arbiter writes "The US federal government is requiring that proposals for grants etc be submitted using a common system at http://grants.gov/. That's a good idea, except that effectively, you must use Windows and Explorer. See To operate PureEdge Viewer, your computer must meet the following system requirements: Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP... PureEdge on Grants.gov will not run within the Firefox browser. They do have a Citrix substitute for non-Windows users. However the site goes on to say "Note that a limited amount of users can access the Citrix Server at any one time... Finally, you will find the best time to work and submit an application via Citrix is during off-peak hours, usually between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m., EST. Finally, if your organization has more than 10 non-Windows users, they want you to add a dedicated Windows box to handle the traffic. For National Science Foundation clients, this is a big step backwards. NSF has had an excellent online system, http://fastlane.nsf.gov/ for years. Fastlane has no bias towards MS. However, by federal edict, NSF people must also use grants.gov."

Comments

Oops ... but is it really so bad?

[Salvance]

This is certainly a huge oversight/blunder by the government ... and I imagine that with enough outrage by contractors they'll create/implement a Linux/Mac version of the software. In the meantime though, it doesn't seem like such a huge inconvenience to have a single $200 Windows computer sitting around just for this purpose.

Re:Oops ... but is it really so bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

You've obviously never bought computers for a large organisation. Try multiplying by at least a factor of 5.

Secondly, anything that makes people get up from their desk and workstation and move to another computer on another desk, log in and start working there - away from their files, email and dead-tree data - costs time and money for no good reason. Taxpayers' money.

Then factor in the support costs associated with a whole different OS. And the time lost near deadline days when several people want to submit proposals at the same time. And ensuing arguments which have potential to reduce productivity over weeks and months to come and generally make the workplace that little bit suckier.

All for no reason.

If you like, factor in that 3 of the allegedly required OSes are unpatchable (Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0) and therefore a security risk and add in arguments between the irate scientist digging out their old crufty Windows box because the damn goverment's damn stupid web site is broken and the network support people who won't let it on to their network.

And then the arguments that start because some bright spark (possibly with grant money and clout) demands a dual boot (i.e. impossible to remotely support in any large organisation) workstation because they now need both Linux and Windows to do their work: Linux to do the actual work and Windows to get the funding.

All because there is no desire either to stick to standards or implement cross-platform solutions, or even to think about the users running scientific workstations on real OSen not having bloody Internet Explorer. (Grr.)

"PurEdge Viewer"

[spiritraveller]

The PureEdge Viewer is a small, free program which will allow you to access, complete and submit applications electronically and securely on Grants.gov.

I guess those great minds in the federal government have never heard of HTML forms and SSL.

I wonder who got bribed for this crap.

Re:"PurEdge Viewer"

[rs79]

"I wonder who got bribed for this crap."

This is not a joke.

Re:So what?

[bubbl07]

Unfortunately, having worked in a biomedical research lab, government funding is crucial in keeping that research going. Sure, you can refuse it but that would be like shooting yourself in the foot. I've seen many brilliant researchers with very promising research topics run out of the facility because of lack of funding, and it's surely one of the most, if not the most, crucial aspects to running a lab.

Refusing to apply on principle is not anything any sane scientist would do. Government-based funding is already difficult to obtain, especially without the proper connections, but not applying in the first place is completely impractical. Even if a lab ran solely on non-Windows based computers, dropping $200 on an old Windows-based PC just for this function would be a no-brainer.

And yes, I think this is a lousy idea on the part of a government that has already concluded that Microsoft has a monopoly.
*golfclap*

Grants.gov is switching to Adobe

[ProsperoDGC]

The government has recognized this problem and is switching their e-forms client from PureEdge (now owned by IBM and called Workplace Forms) to Adobe Reader. They awarded a new contract to General Dynamics IT late last year (switching from the original integrator, Northrop Grumman) and will be rebuilding the whole thing while maintaining the existing form sets and whatnot. The new Adobe forms are scheduled to be available in early April; see this FAQ for more information.

I wrote about this whole thing on my own site and on my company's blog. It's been a major problem for some research universities in particular, who have a loyal Mac community. But I think Grants.gov's on the road to fixing it.

(Full disclosure: Our company was part of a bid to win the contract that was awarded to General Dynamics. Our team proposed a different approach that would have yielded the same outcomes but we're not part of the GDIT team.)

Re:Blessing in disguise...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

This is a blessing in disguise, really. Anything that makes it harder for the U.S. government to give away my money is good by me.

This contains the implicit statement that this does make it harder to give your money away. I don't think this is true. Grants usually get plenty of submissions. This does two things, it changes who gets the money excluding mac and Linux using researchers and it motivates organizations to buy Windows so as not to be left out. Neither benefits me.