gerber@sirius.astro.uiuc.edu (Richard Gerber) (03/17/91)
I recall there being some discussion of this a few months back, so, stolen from the news wire: Apple Closer to Gaining Big Federal Contract 03/15/91 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1991 MAR 15 -- The U.S. General Accounting Office has ruled that Apple Macintosh IIcx computers running under the A/UX version of Unix do meet the requirements of the HFSI (Honeywell Federal Systems Inc.) contract to supply the Air Force's World Wide Military Command and Control System Information System. The ruling on the $600 million contract denied the protest of Herndon, Virginia-based C3 Corporation, which was only the latest challenge to the contract. After earlier protests had resulted in a reopening of bidding, C3 had bid about $20 million less ... The Air Force tests described the Macintosh systems as technically superior. The C3 protest contended that, when the Air Force again selected the Macintosh systems last summer (1990), the military had ignored the questions of multitasking, system connectivity, and security. Nearly a year ago, in response to an earlier August 1989 protest by Martin Marietta, the GAO had recommended that bidding be reopened on the contract because of challenges to the question of whether the Macintosh could meet multitasking requirements. The contract, which originally called for a minimum of 10,000 Apple Macintosh computers, related software, and support, was awarded by The Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) (03/19/91)
In article <1991Mar16.161306.29573@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> gerber@sirius.astro.uiuc.edu (Richard Gerber) writes: >I recall there being some discussion of this a few months back, >so, stolen from the news wire: > >Apple Closer to Gaining Big Federal Contract 03/15/91 > [deleted] >The C3 protest contended that, when the Air Force again selected >the Macintosh systems last summer (1990), the military had >ignored the questions of multitasking, system connectivity, and >security. > [deleted] Sigh. Some people just don't understand how government procurement of computer systems works. Here's a quick review: 1. Some big mucky-muck decides that his division is falling behind the division across the street, because they just got some XGP Whizbanger 400 frobnicators across the street, and there aren't any over here. This is intolerable, because the mucky-muck gets teased about it every times he plays golf with the mucky-mucks from across the street. 2. The mucky-muck tells his toadie that they have to get some Whizbanger 400's to replace the Whizbanger 399's they already have. The toadie gets to work by asking a grunt to write a description of the exact technical capabilities of a Whizbanger 400. Meanwhile, the toadie starts the procurement by asking the committee to allocate a mess of moolah for an upgrade. 3. The toadie sends out a notice to the corporate stiffs that the committee has allocated the moolah (whether they have or not), to procure a large amount of frobnicating machinery, with a vague description of the sort of frobnicating that will be going on. There should be stiffs from at least three corporations: Whiz, Inc. (the maker of the Whizbanger 400), one foreign corporation, and one USA corporation. In a pinch, two stiffs will do, so long as one is from Whiz, Inc., and the other is a USA stiff. 4. The stiffs all come and try to sell their frobnicators to the toadie and a whole collection of grunts. They describe their equipment and use overhead projectors and wear nice suits. 5. The toadie takes the technical description from step 2 and writes "requirements" across the top. He then gives it to the collection, from step 4, telling them to pick the machine they saw that best matches these requirements. They usually pick the Whizbanger 400. If they do not, the toadie fires them and gets another collection that can pick the right machine. 6. The toadie takes the decision of the grunts and gives it to a bunch of pencil pushers, who work out a cost estimate. 7. The toadie gives the estimate to the check-writers, who go out and buy all the Whizbangers they can with that much moolah. 8. The mucky-muck gets to play golf in peace. ------ Well, this is a little bit exaggerated, but it is close enough that a lot of people would recognize it. Government agencies were notorious for writing their reqirements so that only a certain model of IBM mainframe would satisfy them. A certain department in my previous University made certain that they bought Macintoshes, even though one user in there managed to get a NeXT (by paying for it himself) and was doing wonderful things with it before the Macs showed up, and even though the primary purpose was to get things networked (yes, a NeXT can network better than a Mac). And the bit about competing divisions wanting things just because someone else has them is sadly very common. Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240 Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers.