Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!yale!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sgi!shinobu!odin!odin.corp.sgi.com!portuesi From: portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: bah ha ha ha! Message-ID: Date: 6 Feb 90 12:05:21 GMT Sender: news@odin.SGI.COM Reply-To: portuesi@sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mtn. View, CA Lines: 46 From the 2/6 San Francisco Chronicle, Business section, without permission: Apple May Lose Big Defense Contract Apple Computer Inc.'s largest sale to the federal government could be reversed in the wake of a General Accounting Office ruling that Apple's Macintosh system did not meet a key Air Force specification. ... Under the contract awarded in August, Cupertino-based Apple would supply at least 10,000 Macintoshes and possibly up to 80,000 of the desktop computers over several years, plus software and peripheral devices. ... The award was widely regarded as a breakthrough in Apple's struggle to win acceptance in the lucrative government mmarket, and in delivering operating software called Unix that is preferred by federal agencies. Therefore the GAO's ruling was seen as a blow. "It definitely puts a cloud over Apple's federal efforts, primarily because they hyped the contract so much," said Bob Brewin, a senior writer at Federal Computer Week, a trade publication that follows government purchasing. The GAO's recommendation is not binding on the Air Force, but usually carries considerably weight. "In nearly all cases the agency carries out our recommendation,' said David Ashen, a GAO associate general counsel. The GAO sustained Martin Marietta's complaint that the Macintosh system did not adequately meet the Air Force's requirements for capability called "multitasking" -- the ability for a PC to perform more than one chore at once. --M -- __ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems \/ portuesi@sgi.com Entry Systems Division -- Engineering "Why you? Because you're Electro-Cop, the best there is."