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"there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."

Ballmer's epitaph?

Appointees exhibiting original, lucid thought without the consent of the Bush Administration could be subject to disciplinary action.

Danger- Will Robinson!

The fact that the words US DOT and Macs are even in the same article amazing.

"while you transition your apps and workflows from Windows to the reliable, productive, and secure Mac OS X..."

Do we know if the programs they are most concerned with run on Apple (I'm not talking about Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office, but other things I imagine are in use at the Department of Transportation)? If not, there's a pretty big reason not to switch.

Shazaam! The "gumint" can act like it's actually got a brain!

Surely this is another sign of the coming apocalypse.

From the article:

"Schmidt says the Transportation Department hasn't ruled out upgrading its computers to Windows Vista if all of its concerns about the new operating system -- the business version of which was launched late last year -- can be resolved. "We have more confidence in Microsoft than we would have 10 years ago," says Schmidt. "But it always makes sense to look at the security implications, the value back to the customer, and those kind of issues.""

You have MORE confidence in Microsoft now than you did ten years ago?! With statements like that, the soundness of these decisions is questionable.

Finally a good idea! Ban it is right!

If the old POS OS works why bother?

Prediction: Before the year is out, HP will announce a corporate desktop running a flavour of Linux or, quite possibly, a "lipsticked" version of HP/UX. This will ship with a Windows-like interface and a core suite of end user business applications including:

- email client which will interface to Exchange, and possibly Lotus Notes & Groupwise
- word processing client which will read and write Word formatted documents but will be simpler and have less features
- spreadsheet client which will read and write Excel formatted files

The client software will be bundled with the o/s. It will be immune to Windows viruses, and will be highly manageable. Its target will be those corporate users who need more than a thin client, but who do not need to run specific Windows applications.

Dell will be forced to do something similar - but because they have no in-house software expertise they will need to buy their o/s from someone like Sun or rely on opensource...

Lenovo will do the same - perhaps with some IBM solution...

This will be the thin edge of the wedge as far as bringing about the collapse of the microsoft monopoly on the corporate desktop. Apple will make inroads also but it will be the low-cost, ease-of-management story offered by HP which will win over the corporate CIOs...

The Wow Starts Now......LOL

If the government can figure it out....its just a matter of time before the rest of the Windoze zombie followers get a clue too. I think MacTel is taking out WinTel.

The tip of the iceberg is surfacing....watch out Titantic(ooops I meant Microsoft)

Don't stock brokers read MDN? AAPL down 2% even with all those AAPL friendly news and rumors!

anthony007.......


This IS another sign of the coming apocalypse.

..........and stop calling me Shirley!

TR

12 reasons the gov. will keep Windows. Sadly.

• Aspen 2.8.2:


• CAPRI 6.5.1:


• CaseRite 3.7.2:


• CDLIS Access 3.4:


• eFOTM 2.0:


• ISS 2.11:


• PIQ 2.8:


• ProVu 3.1.1:


• SAFER 5.1


• SAFETYNET 3.3


• UFA 2.6.3


• Firebird 1.5.1:

What can I say?


WOW !!!!!

Hey MacDailyNews, Kickbacks? "(don't forget the kickbacks!)". I hope you have evidence of this, otherwise you may be held liable.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

— Abraham Lincoln

Also notice how the mainstream news has been totally silenton the subject of Vista since Microsoft's pathetic attempt at an attention-getting rollout fell flat on its face. Meanwhile, Bill Gates, who beat a hasty retreat after his appearance on The Daily Show, appears to be in hiding.

The DOT could fund the transition to Macs by giving the ax to at least half of their 15,000+ do-nothing employees busily slurping on that big 'ol USDA-approved taxpayer tit.

Or maybe they could ask for a few billion back from that mafia-built tunnel of death in Boston.

Wow, this is our public government, total lame asses. I gurantee they will stick with Windows and switch to Vista within the next year. They will never see the light and go to something more secure. Even if they had all the proof in the world, which they do now, they will never change. I'm not so sure I would like to go into my local DMV and see a buch of Macs all over the place. Ya know it's nice seeing people frustrated with their PCs, really nice.

Mmmmm, slurping on... big 'ol USDA-approved taxpayer tit.

To the ratmobile Monkeyboy! We have some arms to twist in Congress!

**Sydney Stephen**

I have to say I see it on the horizon too. I was guessing a few PC companies would create a Linux OS and support it based on PC warranty purchase. They need to pull together and push MS out.

I work for the Canadian Gov't (research) and about half of us use Macs as our main machine.

Nyah nyah ne nyah nyah (I'm soooo grown up)

Hey buster...I'm a consultant for DFAIT.

I wanna come to your department!!!!!!

In a federal office in Washington, D.C., I use my trusty iBook G4 on a daily basis, unobtrusively, in my humble cubiculum. But every now and then I and my noncomforming laptop emerge and then appear together in a nearby meeting, where the Apple logo glows as a beacon of hope for stodgy bureaucracies everywhere.

Your taxes at work.

Since the same type of appointees followed the stupidity of the Clinton adminstration in staying with Windows, it ain't saying much is it?

Perhaps a President Al Gore, after stepping down from Apple's board of directors, will ensure that all federal government offices will switch too Mac hardware and software. Remember, Die Hard 4.0 will be here this spring!

MacDailyNews Take: "Ballmer ought to be packing his golden parachute very carefully about now."

golden parachute? ballmer is #3 behind gates & paul allen or about $15-20 billion

Office chairs in Redmond are committing mass suicide in a preemptive act from lessons learned at Masada.

I sell "MS SUX" Bumper Stickers for $1.

Vista is a kludge...

SUSE ROCKS!

Please Please Please

Sent the RINBOT virus to all the government agencies.

Especially the IRS.

Just a tax paying thought

I agree with the Guy above!

Microsoft does Suck but we try to get as much as we can from our customers.

I run Suse on my PC at home... It does Rock...

That's why we need to work with Novell to finally have a solid OS.

Hey! I had an Aspen, and it was so bad I nearly didn't run the company! It was so bad, it must have run on Windows — they kept crashing down into the doors.

"We have more confidence in Microsoft than we would have 10 years ago," says Schmidt.

Didn't MS start developing Vista ten years ago?

I think it'd be GREAT for the DOT to switch to Macs, being a long time Mac user at home (since System 6). Unfortunately, if any government agency switches to Macs, it will cost a lot to retrain these peeps. Many of these people use their computers as appliances, and would find it hard to make the switch. Their unions would probably make it mandatory for this training to take place. Sadly, I know this from experience working for the Feds.

ron: 12 reasons the gov. will keep Windows. Sadly.

Wrong! Those same applications run on Linux. Leopard is/will be a Unix '03 Certified OS. Just recompile/link and off you go. Those apps run on OS X Leopard.

Yup.
Al Gore would truly be the biggest impetus to switching the gubmint' to Mac.

"there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products."

You have to read this correctly, it says basically that the current products to the required jobs so well that there's little reason to upgrade to the newer versions.

And for those who have never worked in a corporate environment, it's common practice to not jump in and install new software company wide the day of it's public release.

@Sydney Stephen:

Agreed absolutely. I have thought for some time that what Linux needed was someone like HP who have the technical and support ability to put a pre-loaded Linux setup on their machines. If they bundle that with some good apps like Gimp and Open Office, they could give Apple a good run in some markets.

Effectively they would be using the Apple end to end model but with Linux. Having used Linux I don't think it's really for Mom and Pop but in a coporate setting it would blow Windows out of the water. Daniel Eran at RoughlyDrafted posted an article on how Apple is leveraging Open Source to take on Exchange. No reason why HP, Lenovo et al shouldn't do the same and offer a value proposition to corporates.

@Tacitus

HP won't do it until they perceive their business is at risk, and/or Microsoft is weakened sufficiently not to retaliate. Whether they use Linux or a flavour of HP/UX is an interesting question. I think it more likely they will go for the proprietary model despite the development task of making HP/UX behave like Windows.

@Machopeful

I agree, more or less. But this wont make Microsoft shareholders happy. Its not that XP etc does the job so well. I would say it is "adequate to the task". Either way, the Vista installed base is going to be small for some time. Especially if home user reaction is overwhelmingly negative.

On the latter issue, I have heard lots of horror stories. Applications no longer running, security prompts driving people crazy, crashes, hangs, poor performance, steep learning curve for the new UI... Does anyone know anyone who has installed Vista and likes it?

"Either way, the Vista installed base is going to be small for some time. Especially if home user reaction is overwhelmingly negative."

Have you tried to find a new home PC with XP in a store recently? Negative reaction or not, if you're buying a new home PC, you're getting Vista. Most home users will probably get Vista with their next PC rather then bother to upgrade.

Corporate customers as always will update in their own conservative timeframe.

"But this wont make Microsoft shareholders happy."

In reality 95% of the time the sale's going to either XP or Vista, so Microsoft shareholders don't have too much to worry about.

@Machopeful

Yes you are right about Vista being preloaded... I wonder if all the bad news about Vista will dissuade many home users from buying a new machine in the short term?

I was in one of the larger stores in Sydney today and I noticed a big display rack of Vista software. I asked the guy behdin the counter if they had sold many copies. "One or two." he said. He said that the stock on the shelves was what they had at release date - and they hadn't needed to get any more in...

The bottom line is that Microsoft won't get much of a kick from the installed base - and the corporate machines will have the preloaded Vista wiped off anyway.

Which version of Vista is preloaded on PCs in the stores? And no choice to install XP or Vista? Wow! That is going to upset a lot of people when they find it doesn't run their existing software...

LOL,

believe it or not, a friend got Vista with his new PC (being a friend tried and tried to dissuade him). ROFLMAO, he is bringing it back this weekend for a refund! Spent the last 4 days trying to make the crap work.

Couldn't resist to be watching him suffer and shaking my head from time to time with a very explicit told'ya look in my face.

He is now in total disarray. Watch this space: I think Vista was the last stroke. I might have another switcher under my belt soon.

@SO TOTALLY

I wonder how many storeis like this we are going to hear...

Your friend will be much happier with a Mac...

"I wonder how many storeis like this we are going to hear..."

Even if you hear dozens, even hundreds of such stories, it's still not going to make a dent in the approx 750,000 Windows machines shipped every day of every month of every year.

The combined PC vendors have sold more machines by the second week of January than Apple does in a year.

Or to put another way on a quarterly basis it takes the PC industry 2-3 days to sell as many machines as Apple will sell that quarter.

@Machopeful

AHA. I thought you were a windoze troll. Boring, boring, boring... Go and do some research before you waste everyone's time on this site...

Apple IS making a dent. Market share is up to 6% overall. Notebook sales up 108% quarter on quarter. $12Billion in cash in the bank and executing brilliant strategy in every line of business in which they operate.

"You are coming to a sad realisation... Cancel or Allow?"

"Market share is up to 6% overall"

Sorry not worldwide. Worldwide it's about 2.3%. Also Apple will sell less Macs this quarter than last quarter. After a brief blip up as Mac users upgraded from their aging PowerPCs to new WinTel Macs, share is going down. Sorry to let reality rain on your parade.

@Machopeful

You need to compare quarterly sales with the previous year's quarter to avoid seasonality. If you care to log your posts with a real identity then I would be more interested in a debate with you on this. This site is plagued by Windows trollers - right now you seem like one of them. Where do you get your data on Apple marketshare?

The rain in Spain may fall mainly on the plain. But the only rain falling on the IT industry is falling on Redmond. Apple is enjoying its well deserved place in the sun right now and those of us who like Apple are making hay.

I wish you luck with your upgrade from Windows ME...

"You need to compare quarterly sales with the previous year's quarter to avoid seasonality."

Only in a seasonal market. PC sales are booming. Mac sales are going down. They peaked 2 quarters ago, were flat last quarter and will be less this one. All of this in a growing market, where standing still means that you're falling behind. Any time you see two products which are substitutes for each other moving in opposite directions, you know the one going down is in trouble. When the trend extends over three quarters, you've got something to work with. You're kidding yourself if you think you need a whole year to spot the trend.

"Where do you get your data on Apple marketshare?"

IDC and Gartner for the historical stuff.

@Machopeful

You still miss the point. Mac sales are predominantly to personal users - and are highly seasonal. I thnk you will find that the best sales figures of any organisation are those for mac notebooks which rose 108% quarter on quarter according to the latest sales figures (search on here for the report from a few weeks back).

9,000 people a week are switching to Mac in Apple stores alone.

And I dont know where the book in PC sales is happening. HP had a good quarter for notebooks (but nothing like Apple in % growth terms) but desktops were flat. Dell units shipped, revenue and margin all went backwards.

Stay tuned brother. And, if you dont have one, buy a hat. You may need to eat it sooner that you think...