MITRE, a not-for-profit corporation that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the U.S. government, is discontinuing internal support for Macs, MacMinute has learned. “Macintosh-compatible products either lag the market or, because of limited market share, don’t exist at all,” an email sent to members of the company explains. Macs will still be allowed to be ordered for lab and research use, however. Ironically, MITRE’s decision to discontinue support for Macs came several days before a Washington Post story ran covering MITRE’s endorsement of open-source software in the government, following efforts by Microsoft to convince the government otherwise. MITRE’s influence extends heavily to the Department of Defense C3, the Federal Aviation Administration and other civil aviation authorities, and the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department.
