Mac-loving Obama staff confronts Windows White House reality

Obama has promised change. In his first day in office, however, he discovered that change is easier said than done. Take his team’s operating-system preference. Obama’s team was dismayed to discover that the White House runs Windows, not Macs, according to The Washington Post. I’m a Mac fan, but I’m somewhat surprised by the naivete of this response: The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with 6-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing…Senior advisers chafed at the new arrangements, which severely limit mobility–partly by tradition but also for security reasons and to ensure that all official work is preserved under the Presidential Records Act. – From CNET

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. Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts. – From Washington Post

This week, the White House became a switcher. As the new presidential team took over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, they were met with outdated equipment still apparently running the sturdy old Windows XP and Windows 2000, as well as a host of bureaucratic rules meant to ensure that all official work at the White House can be properly recorded according to the Presidential Records Act. 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. – From ars technica