09/07/2005, 8:55am, EDT

Wednesday, September 7th

FEMA relief services Windows-only

Hurricane survivors using Mac and Linux computers have been unable to use Federal disaster relief claim services online, reports Macworld UK. The service, created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), only works with Windows and Internet Explorer 6. It is unclear if there is a reason the FEMA site blocks non-Internet Explorer browsers. Some Mac users have managed to gain access to the site using Opera -- which can identify itself as Internet Explorer 6 -- without problems. Ars Technica claims many relief workers have been forced to spend precious aid money on Windows OS licenses as they set up terminals to help hurricane victims initiate the claims process. The controversy is the latest in an ongoing struggle with FEMA, which has been criticized for not doing enough following the disaster.

Filed under: industry

, 27

27 comments

Reader Reactions (Please use <i></i> for italic text)

subscribe to comments
for this article

Expand All

Global Settings

Marc2B

Windows and FEMA

09/07, 9:42am, EDT

The reason FEMA only accepts and supports Windows is because the Federal Government is Microsoft's largest customer. I just retired from the Air Force and worked in the communications fraturnity. That's exactly what it is, a frat because if you use anything other than a Windows based machine, you weren't getting any support. In fact, in the Air Force, you can't even order a computer that isn't a Windows based machine. If you use Mac, you ain't getting online in the Air Force or the Gov. That be da truth people.

Mark

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Sep 2005

User is offline

siMac

Disgusting...

09/07, 9:48am, EDT

Yet another example of lazy web developers taking proprietary Microsoft $hortcuts and shunning web standards. They get paid, Microsoft reinforce their monopoly, the majority of users never notice, we get shafted. Governments should know better.

Mac Elite

Joined Aug 2004

User is offline

gudin

Incompetent

09/07, 9:56am, EDT

Well, the entire federal government is incompetent from the top down, so why should this be any different?

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined May 2000

User is offline

ZinkDifferent

USABILITY GUIDELINES

09/07, 9:57am, EDT

Unfortunately, all it takes is an officially complaint, as their insistence on MS Windows IE is in gross violation of their own, and the Federal Government's usability guidelines specified on their own site:

http://www.fema.gov/help/508.shtm

The browser requirement is, of course, a violation of the Section 508 regulations for accessibility and usability of US federal government websites. I'd suggest a complaint to the FEMA IG, but then there are better reasons to complain to the IG about the agency's inability to do its job.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Jan 2005

User is offline

macbarry

Islamic hackers?

09/07, 10:06am, EDT

Could it be that the US Government exclusively uses the very insecure Windows OS only as a trick to catch those nefarious Islamic extremist hackers?

Junior Member

Joined Aug 2002

User is offline

ibugv4

First poster WRONG

09/07, 10:20am, EDT

I work for the NIH. We're split down the middle Mac and PC. The Macintosh has a large and very respected userbase in all of NIH. Our Apple Rep handles NASA and NIH, and was demoing a SUN program that NASA recompiled and got running 3x faster without code tweaking on a G4, with tweaking it ran 45x faster and with the dev tools they took a command-line application and gave it a GUI letting mroe people work with it. CROCK OF SHYTE. Hell, even the President has a PowerBook.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Jun 2003

User is offline

1zero

Well...

09/07, 10:22am, EDT

MS and the Fed have a lot to explain.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Oct 2003

User is offline

climacs

This news just in...

09/07, 10:25am, EDT

Fuck Bush.

Fuck anyone named Bush.

Fuck anyone who even remotely looks like Bush.

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Sep 2001

User is offline

bernardb

Agreed...

09/07, 10:39am, EDT

Institutionalized incompetemce is again demonstrated. A government agency is a bureaucracy that cannot function as a group of individuals in concert, but rather as a large mindless entity driven by pattern and repetition....sad indeed...

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Feb 2004

User is offline

WaltFrench

Fear Mongering

09/07, 10:49am, EDT

Yeah, FEMA doesn't allow anything but IE6...

Except telephones. They don't even need to be iTunes-enabled. (Quelle horreur! Another anti-Apple move!!!) Anybody actually in need of FEMA services might like to know the 800.621.FEMA number, which you DIDN'T print, preferring to whine about Mac incompatibility.

In the midst of all the human suffering, it seems horribly parochial to focus on the least awful of our various failings.

Or do you not like the color scheme on the FEMA website, too?

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Jun 2003

User is offline

additional comments:..1..2..3..Next

Your Comments

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

Default Comment View
External Page Links
Comment Threading View