Too expensive for
users to run
The US State Department has been banning the use of the Open
Sauce browser Firefox because it feels it is too expensive in comparison to
Internet Exploder.
A recent meeting between Secretary Clinton and one
of her staffers showed the level of ignorance between senior staffers and
the great unwashed. According to Boing Boing, it all started when an
unnamed State Department apparat asked Clinton to let him use Firefox.
To
a round of applause from fellow staffers he said he just moved to the State
Department from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and was
surprised that State forbids the use this browser. It was approved for the
entire intelligence community, so I don't understand why State can't use it.
It's a much safer program.
Clinton asked one of her minions to explain why
and was told by Under secretary Kennedy that it was a question of expense.
Under secretary was just about to go on for five minutes about budget cuts
when the questioner interrupted and said that Firebadger was free.
Not
one to be deterred by tricky questions, Undersecretary Kennedy said nothing
was free. At the moment there was no resources to manage multiple systems.
He said the State Department might be able to afford to allow Firefox in the
next budget run.
“Yes, you’re correct; it’s free, but it has to be
administered, the patches have to be loaded. It may seem small, but when
you’re running a worldwide operation and trying to push, as the Secretary
rightly said, out FOBs and other devices, you’re caught in the terrible bind
of triage of trying to get the most out that you can, but knowing you can’t
do everything at once,” he said.
Odd really. Been running it for years an
neither me, nor my employer has ever had to allocate resources to it. (Nor would we. sub.ed.)