Obama Staffers Hate View From Windows

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/putting-the-o-in-os-x-when-the-white-house-meets-the-macintosh.ars' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...e-macintosh.ars</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The Obama team has long been known for using Apple equipment. President Obama himself uses a Mac laptop, as does his media team, which according to the Washington Post is now facing the daunting prospect of updating the West Wing to modern equipment and doing so while complying with government regulations. The Post article quipped that "if the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past.""</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1233062221.usr18053.jpg" /></p><p>Ya gotta feel for the Obama guys, but at the same time, did they expect to just walk into the White House, plug in their MacBooks and get to work?&nbsp; I imagine this administration will be great for getting the ancient tech used in the White House up to 2008 standards (think about it; Windows 2000 and Windows XP?&nbsp; And if they're still running 2000, do you really think they're running it on new machines anyway?&nbsp; I doubt it).&nbsp; It's tough being a Mac user in the Windows world sometimes.</p>

[doogald]

Boy, everybody talks about the transition being too long but, considering the fact that the administration may want to upgrade technology, I wonder if it is a bit too tight?

But the Obama transition team should have been given complete info on what was in the White House and Executive Buildings. There is no way that they should have been surprised on January 20.

[Vincent Ferrari]

But the Obama transition team should have been given complete info on what was in the White House and Executive Buildings. There is no way that they should have been surprised on January 20.

Indeed, and frankly I hold them responsible for asking about it, too. No one assumes "Mac" when they do anything government-related. ;)

[emuelle1]

Government IT is especially unfriendly to change. This mentality is often perpetuated by a desire to comply with security requirements, yet I'm not aware in most cases of any efforts to test or certify new platforms for those security requirements. I have a computer on my desk with XP SP2 and IE6. IE6 has gotten so outdated that I've had to run Firefox Portable with IE Tab just to access some of the sites and applications on that intranet. I'm locked to "user" access on that system, which I pretty much use only for email. I have a Vista laptop for travel and I use that for almost everything else.

I agree, the Obama staff should have checked ahead of time. One thing I'm hoping is that they can do is somehow lead to a change in mentality of government and large corporate environment IT.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I agree, the Obama staff should have checked ahead of time. One thing I'm hoping is that they can do is somehow lead to a change in mentality of government and large corporate environment IT.

Corporate IT is anathema to change. Ancient software and policy is justified by the "learning curve" and "expense" and so on. Frankly, despite working in a corporate IT Department, I think IT is hopelessly backward in way too many respects as an industry.

[doogald]

Indeed, and frankly I hold them responsible for asking about it, too. No one assumes "Mac" when they do anything government-related. ;)

I am pretty certain that the IT staff of the team knew what was going on. It seems clear that they weren't communicating expectations to end-users very well, however. Well, that's pretty typical in corporate IT as well.

[Spooof]

Corporate IT is anathema to change. Ancient software and policy is justified by the "learning curve" and "expense" and so on. Frankly, despite working in a corporate IT Department, I think IT is hopelessly backward in way too many respects as an industry.

If I had more time today I could type a book in response to this. The short answer is "in my experience it is more about change management" It is a simple task to roll out a new OS, Office, and exchange. It is all the other applications that cause issues. Depending on your industry it is largely complex when you are dealing with integrated applications.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I am pretty certain that the IT staff of the team knew what was going on. It seems clear that they weren't communicating expectations to end-users very well, however. Well, that's pretty typical in corporate IT as well.

Communication?

In IT?

Damn... That's downright revolutionary!

[Vincent Ferrari]

If I had more time today I could type a book in response to this. The short answer is "in my experience it is more about change management" It is a simple task to roll out a new OS, Office, and exchange. It is all the other applications that cause issues. Depending on your industry it is largely complex when you are dealing with integrated applications.

While that is true in my experience as well, the stagnation that it causes is often more damaging than the change itself. I've been living this very issue for the past 12 years in my company. Change management = No change at all, and that's just the wrong way to do things, but when you have picky people with big mouths running Office 2000 and they don't want to move, sometimes that ties your hands.