Bets that the standardisation doesn't save any money long term and instead makes everyone have slower machines than previously available?
White House to Feds: Stop buying new PCs, laptops right now
The Obama Administration has ordered US federal agencies to hold off on purchasing new PCs in hopes of patching up a broken ordering system. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has put a hold on new desktops and notebooks while it sorts through what it says are "thousands" of new system orders every year. …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 03:40 GMT Herby
Re: Basic Computing Ability?
Let's look further...
OS... Linux... Check.
Office... LibreOffice... Check.
Email... Evolution... Check.
Access to mainframe via browser... Firefox... Check.
And for the WIN... What can I say? Solitaire is everywhere!
And just to make sure: ALL non Microsoft, and "free" of License fees!
What a deal! Can I be the contractor?
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 05:04 GMT Mark 85
Re: Basic Computing Ability?
Sadly, given the nature of the Government.. Linux probably has a small chance.... very small. I recall that a lot of their PC's are still on XP. I'm curious what changes, if any, the government will push on Win10. Probably zilch... leave the telemetry and phoning home in place.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 08:22 GMT Robert Helpmann??
Re: Basic Computing Ability?
VDI with Windows VMs seems to be the flavor of the day for at least two branches that I am aware of. Linux desktops, not so much. Macs? I know of one pilot program that went nowhere. My guess is that over time, we should expect mostly laptops for PC purchases and those only for management and essential personnel on a regular basis with a pool of loaner machines that can be checked out for people on travel.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 12:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Scam
Actually the PC makers seem to be the only ones profiting. Every so often I hear from said employees that their agency is auctioning off (or giving away) hundreds of brand new.... 5 year old Dell/HP mini desktops.
It's just a bloated bureaucracy pissing away taxes which are clearly higher than they know what to do with.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 05:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: The usual process to stop such activities...
But SAP is German. The {insert TLS name nere} can't have their data in control of the Germans!!!!!!!!
Buy American.
That is the mantra in the US Gov. Buy USA to protect jobs in the USA.
I seem to remember a question in congress that went along the lines of
"This Harrier airctaft the the Marines want to buy. What state is it made in? "
Then another one
"If we buy this from the Brits how many US jobs are gonna go especially in my state?"
There is an election (isn't there always...) very soon, ok, this time next year. These Politicians in DS gotta show the flag for the US and ,... well, you get it.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 08:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: The usual process to stop such activities...
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 17:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: What? Why?
The issue is not the manufacturer (Dell, HP, Lenovo) but the reseller, who adds on a margin and 'value add' services.
Those services and margins don't come cheap and the Federal government could probably save min 10% by negotiating a direct contract with each of the manufacturers.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 09:54 GMT Bronek Kozicki
Re: "group of experts selected by NASA"
Say what you will, but NASA does have pretty good idea how to turn the collection of parts from thousands of unrelated subcontractors, into a robot device running many years with no end in sight on the surface of Mars. Is it relevant experience for advising PC purchases in the government? Well, perhaps not all of it ... but they must be doing something right, no?
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 19:05 GMT 404
Welcome to Crazy Barack's!
'Because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to find the best computer hardware, network, and service for your Federal Office Needs!
https://www.crazybaracks.gov <----obviously not real.
Seriously though, why not an internal Federal Amazon website for all departments to make IT purchases? And any other stuff I imagine) Beancounters could count endless beans with bulk purchases/inventory, data security folks could quit pulling their hair out and standardize Federal networks. Win/Win.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 19:07 GMT wsm
Single-source contract
I can tell you how that ends. A large quasi-governmental organization I knew of once had a non-technical supervisor arrange the best possible deal for "commodity" computers. The whole deal went to Gateway. Prices went up, quality and selection went down, then Gateway went into bankruptcy. Anyone who actually cooperated with the contractor instead of getting exceptions approved regretted their lack of effort.
Government has a wonderful way of putting all of its eggs into one basket. Those of us who wish to stay sane at work need to avoid the inevitable consequences, somehow.
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 21:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Single-source contract
This state requires anything over $500 to have three competing brands of similar configurations to be submitted at the county level, yet 100% of 'state' machines are Dell, and have been for some many years now.
Truth be told, I've witnessed BMW custom built towers, HP, and Dell cycle through one office over the years.The Dells survive the longest on a 24/7 basis, HPs burn out motherboards frequently, and just got tired of replacing parts on the BMWs. In another office, staff were gifted every year with a one old workstations. All separate entities, all in the same building. Weird, eh?
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Tuesday 20th October 2015 19:16 GMT 404
The Conspiracy Theory
NSA calls the White House, says Microsoft isn't going to play ball with all that sweet, sweet, data being siphoned off by Windows 10. Emergency executive session of advisers commences immediately, due to the unknown data NSA has collected on their own identities. Ultimatum issued to Microsoft, they do not flinch. Result? Embargo *all* PC purchases by Federal government until Microsoft complies with NSA demands. The non-IT angle is golf.
It's obvious...
;)
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Wednesday 21st October 2015 00:57 GMT Stevie
Bah!
I worked for [REDACTED] in [REDACTED] state and well into the age of XP I was told I could have the loaner laptop I had requested some years before.
It ran NT 4.0.
And the government in question had a warehouse full of 'em.
The machines were state of the art when acquired, but the process of actually agreeing who could have one meant that they were well obsoleted long before the first one was sent to the "thankful" recipient.
Battery life was jaw-dropping too. About twenty minutes or so.
Having learned my lesson I reluctantly admitted my ten year old request for a stapler was never going to be honored, so I bought my own, a nice red one.