For the previous four years I worked at selling Mac and OS X to the US Government. One of the arguments that I used was that OS X offered a way to provide security through diversity. The code diversity of running applications written for a different operating system was a powerful argument. Unfortunately it was hard to make the argument one person at a time to millions of government employees.
There was a lot of logic behind adding OS X to the mix of federal operating systems. Today I wonder if the time for wide adoption of OS X in the US Government might have passed. I think this has happened even though OS X continues to grow in sophistication and there has been a valiant effort by Apple field people to get the message across.
When you are selling to the enterprise, you cannot do it one at a time. You need your corporation to step up to the plate. A sales force cannot do it alone. Executives have to build relationships that cannot be built at the field level. Marketing people have to get the message across which includes arranging for high level keynotes which take the story off the street into the CIO's office.
All of this has to happen when the time is right. My belief is that the time for Apple to really go after the US Government was three years ago. Organizations such the US Air Force and others were openly skeptical of Microsoft's ability to deliver a secure operating system.
Apple with OS X had a three year lead over MS. Unfortunately Apple was unwilling to play the security card or to reach out to government customers. Security was an Apple strength that was almost buried. In fact the Security technical brief on Panther was only released just before FOSE in March of last year while the operating system was released the previous October. Surely writing a few pages of text is easier than releasing an operating system. If you want to market a product you have to get its features discussed by customers and reviewed by key media organizations.
For four years OS X, its UNIX heritage, its great locked down security advantage, its Open Source Darwin kernel, and its native version of Microsoft Office remained a virtual secret in the federal space unless you happened to be an agency where the limited number of Apple field people had gotten in the door. Only once in my four years was there an ad in a federal weekly mentioning OS X's UNIX benefits.
Today the Air Force, Homeland Security, and the Army have all signed long term contracts with Microsoft. Getting Apple through their doors will be much harder. There are now three versions of supported Linux out in the market, one of which includes Security Enhanced or SE Linux which was developed in partnership with NSA. There is also a trusted Linux in development. Now that Apple might finally be interested in the US Government market, the ten reasons to switch from Windows look pretty good on the Xandros site and the momentum seems to be for Linux. Check out the website for the key government computer show for 2005, FOSE. The Linux Pavillion is just the beginning of Linux's real push into the federal space.
The momentum could have been with OS X and Apple.
I have been using Windows XP Professional for over six months with no virus or worm problems. The wonderful advantage that Apple had with OS X isn't nearly as great as it was three years ago. XP Professional is not as good as OS X, but it is probably good enough for the US Government, and while the security issue hasn't disappeared, it is not the hot button that it was when Government systems were falling prey to worms almost monthly. Microsoft in spite of what anyone might say has not been immune to all the complaints over security. They have made great improvements by listening in their own special way to customers.
On top of that Linux has made huge strides in closing the usability gap. What was once a great opportunity has become much more difficult. While part of me wants to excuse Apple because I know folks were busy with the iPod success, another part of me wants to say that five percent of the effort that went into the iPod could have resulted in huge success in not only the federal space but also the whole enterprise space.
Unfortunately it would have also required for a close relationship with customers so that the right tweaks could have been made to the products, but that is a whole other story and one the Linux community is inherently better at doing because customers really are part of the development team.
This quotation from the Xandros user testimonials should be a warning flag for Apple. It comes from someone who describes himself as a die-hard Mac user . I hope this guy will at least try a Mac Mini before he gives up on the platform.
With each day, I'm using my Xandros Desktop 3.0 system more and more. The system is fast, stable, virus-free, and--unlike other systems I've used--inexpensive. Oh, I still use my old Mac now and then, but someday I'll probably be retiring that old Apple, which is looking rustier and rustier each day. Yet when that day comes, it probably won't bother me too much since I'll be using Xandros for almost all of my computing needs, and at a much lower cost.
When you add that kind of enthusiasm to the Windows compatibility that customer centric Linux has been able to deliver, the equation for the Mac goes back to justifying the absolutely great style and design of the Mac which is not easy to do in the enterprise.
Crossover Office 4 runs Windows programs almost as fast and as completely as if they were running native on Windows. Connecting to a windows Network is as easy as sharing the files of both computers, giving your network a name, naming both computers and viola, you got share Laughing.
The Crossover product, which I have not tried, lets you run your Windows apps and is included in the $89 distribution of Xandros which also includes Open Office and applications for every computing need including project management. If it works well and indications are that it does, it will blunt the unbelievable advantage that Apple had for several years with the native MS Office especially when you consider the nagging Outlook compatibility issues that MS just never seems to get right in the Mac version.
I hope Apple's renewed efforts in the enterprise space prove me wrong, but it may be too little too late. I keep seeing the Linux freight train headed towards the enterprise desktop and the combination of Intel hardware and the customer driven OS modifications in Linux may doom Apple to a small piece of the enterprise space. It is all about the right product at the right time. Obviously Apple got it right with the iPod, but once again they may have missed the opportunity to be a significant playing in the operating system world.
My next post will talk about the exceptionally important connections between the enterprise market and Apple's two key targets education and consumer. I certainly will not be the first to discuss these important ties. Of course they have been all but ignored in Cupertino.
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