Obama's Mac-savvy team lands in Microsoft hell at White House

[brad.c]

I'm not talking about a hardware changeover.

Perhaps not you, but the general thesis of this thread suggests one. Even a platform update would be a risky proposition at this time.

They should have had everybody's accounts and paperwork done before the 20th.

Again, I suggest that people are still being confirmed and hired, from Secretary of Paperclips on down. That means all the sys admins would have leading up to the transfer would be a long list of TBDs.

 

[SkyBell]

'

Why would one expect the base of the free world to be running outdated systems?

XP is hardly outdated. And besides, I imagine it's the most used operating system in the world, so why wouldn't governments use it?

 

[r.j.s]

Perhaps not you, but the general thesis of this thread suggests one. Even a platform update would be a risky proposition at this time.

The general theme of thread is that uninformed people would like one, however, I don't see it happening any time in the next several years.

Again, I suggest that people are still being confirmed and hired, from Secretary of Paperclips on down. That means all the sys admins would have leading up to the transfer would be a long list of TBDs.

Yeah, the appointees are being confirmed, but the normal staffers have know for a while that they will be working there.

Like I said, you don't just 'show up' to work at WH.

 

[mrbrown]

It sort of feels right that the Obama camp used Macs whilst the Bush admin was using Windows. Just who was the evil empire, George?

'Cept that wasn't George's doing; the government has their IT policies, like a business, and you have to follow them. Ironically, I think the only government department that has a wide deployment of Macs is Homeland Security.

Incidentally, I believe Bush was a Mac guy pre-White House - there are quite a few pictures of him on the campaign trail (and in the Governor's mansion) with a PowerBook.

 

[.Andy]

The question is, why wasn't all this done during the transition? It's not like they just suddenly dropped by the WH and said, 'We're here, give us our accounts.'

That would be the ideal situation. I guess it would depend if this is possible which i've no idea about. I'd assume they wouldn't get processed and get their security clearance until the day they move in.

Sounds as straightforward as the MobileMe rollout.

Haha !

"Obama staffers were flummoxed by all the out-of-date Microsoft software left over from the Bush administration"

That's not in the WP article. That's a editorial added by a blogger. If you think that constitutes "bush bitching" you're on a hair trigger. You'd do well to read the article - Obama's staff never bitch or blame bush at all.

Did Obama really think the government could drop $1000+ for every computer the whitehouse uses so he could have a mac?

Of course not. Where in the article does it even say anything of the sort ? It is highlighting the difference between the technology used in the campaign (which allowed a relative freedom) to the bureaucracy and rigmarole required by whitehouse policy and Obama staffers struggling to get orientated.

Not only that, but its freaking XP! Its been around for a while and if you dont know how to use it you cant blame Bush for "leftover" tech.

Again this has nothing to do with Obama's staff in the WP article. They never blame bush for not being able to use the tech. Again I suggest you read the article. They don't blame anybody but themselves and the process.

It seems that Obama likes to have some excuse why everything wqas done wrong prior to him.

There aren't any excuses from Obama in the article at all. You're making things up.

It seems like he missed the wagon on this one and wasnt prepared for the switch.

I agree with this. The general idea of the article is that the Obama camp is in relative disarray compared to their campaign. Whether this is down to whitehouse policy or their own unfamiliarity with a different tech systems is up for debate.

 

[gotzero]

I think they probably took the real equipment with them when they left.

Old computers are one thing, especially if everyone had laptops anyway, but non-working phones seem pretty unlikely. Based on the secrecy of the administration regarding saved communications, I do not think they were leaving anything up to chance.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

That's not in the WP article. That's a editorial added by a blogger. If you think that constitutes "bush bitching" you're on a hair trigger. You'd do well to read the article - Obama's staff never bitch or blame bush at all.

Im sorry, heres a quote from the article itself:
1•"Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages"
also:
2•"The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software."
3•"The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos."


1•Since when is XP from the "dark ages" of tech? Most big businesses are still running xp. Im still running xp. My school still runs xp. My workpace still runs xp. Dark ages? I think not.

2•They lack the ability to go from osx to xp? I understand that some people arent that great with tech to begin with, and this gets worse as you age, but if they cant handle using xp i really dont have any faith in them to ever get their computers under control. Like i said up there^^ Xp is everywhere, if you cant transition between osx and xp you really have nobody to blame but yourself.

3•I have never edited video, but i guarantee you that i could figure it out with 15 minutes and google. It really just seems like they arent trying. Either that or the media is spinning this like a pottery wheel (sorry, i suck at similes...) and making it sound like Bush failed to do anything in the white house, which wouldnt surprise me; bush takes alot of flak for things that he didnt do. Granted, he messed up quite a bit, but people actually blame him for the stock market when it was slowly building up to this for a long time
Im all for pointing fingers, just make sure you have the right guy first.

 

[robanga]

3•I have never edited video, but i guarantee you that i could figure it out with 15 minutes and google. It really just seems like they arent trying. Either that or the media is spinning this like a pottery wheel (sorry, i suck at similes...) and making it sound like Bush failed to do anything in the white house, which wouldnt surprise me; bush takes alot of flak for things that he didnt do. Granted, he messed up quite a bit, but people actually blame him for the stock market when it was slowly building up to this for a long time
Im all for pointing fingers, just make sure you have the right guy first.

Precisely. It was junk journalism, plain and simple. The less money that can be made in journalism, the worse their product gets.