Good gravy, what's gotten into Apple regarding product names lately? First there was the ill-fated PowerExpress project, which, had it not met its untimely death, was rumored to be named "Power Macintosh Extreme" when it finally made it out of the labs. Now Mac OS Rumors is reporting that the super-OS now known as Rhapsody will actually ship under the name "Mac OS Enterprise" when it's released later this year.

"Mac OS Enterprise?" Yecch. Apparently the team who thought up cool product names like Centris and QuickTime didn't survive the layoffs. We think Apple may be totally missing the important point that an operating system name should be utterable in no more than two syllables-- three, tops. The problem with Apple's rumored planned name is that not only is it six syllables long (and as boring as defragmenting one's disk, by the way), but also it's not really contractible into a shorter verson. What could you call it? "I've got a Dell box running Enterprise?" Forget it, no one will know what the heck you're talking about. Geez, if it's got to be boring, how about at least making it shorter by calling it "Mac OS Pro?"

It's a shame Apple's not sticking with the name "Rhapsody," which we think would do wonderfully; it's short, sweet, distinctive, exciting, and it feels right rolling off the tongue. Probably at least part of the reason is the music software that already uses that name. In the meantime, do AtAT's faithful viewers have some better ideas for the name game? It'd be sad to see such a kick-ass operating system get hobbled with such a clunky moniker. Give us your suggestions via our Survey page.

Wow, there sure are a lot of tech-type companies in financial trouble these days: Netscape posted a loss and is laying off 400 people; Micropolis shut down entirely; Seagate is laying off some 10,000 jobs; APS Technologies just filed for Chapter 11; Power Computing just auctioned off the last of its stuff before turning out the lights; Oracle's stock plunged almost 30% last month; and of course there's Apple, whose ongoing financial difficulties are legendary in our own time. And now the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Egghead Inc. is one of the latest casualties, saying that they're closing up every single one of their 80 stores, laying off 80% of their total staff, and moving to an internet-only selling model.

Bummer, man. We at AtAT actually bought our first Mac software ever at a local Egghead store (which, I believe, was The Seventh Guest and Shanghai II). And well before that, Yours Truly used to buy Infocom games for my Apple //e there. But times change, and Egghead's taken a beating from the growth of superstores like CompUSA, as well as from the increased popularity of internet-based storefronts. Egghead's brand name recognition might give it a boost as it tries to carve out a niche for itself on the crowded cyberscape, but with successful online stores like Cyberian Outpost, MacWarehouse, etc. already dominating the scene, they've got a tough time ahead.

Of course, nowadays we couldn't care less whether Egghead sinks or swims. As far as AtAT's concerned, they started down the "bad karma" path when they ditched the Newton a couple of years ago, and they irrevocably locked themselves onto the highway to hell when they ditched the Mac platform recently. See, people? What goes around comes around. Best Buy and Computer City, beware. ;-)

Of course, just because Best Buy is no longer going to be selling Apple computers doesn't mean that they were the ones who ditched the platform (even though the press is putting that typical spin on the whole thing-- take the title of the CNNfn story "Best Buy drops Macs: Electronics superstore deals Apple Computer another blow" for one example). It could just as easily have been Apple who told Best Buy that if they weren't going to display and promote the Macs in a reasonable fashion, they could go play in traffic; recent rumors about Apple "getting tough" with its retailers would seem to support this possibility.

In reality, though, it's a little of both. The guys at MacCentral report that the decision to stop selling Macs at Best Buy was a mutual one that both Best Buy and Apple supported. The reasoning was simply that the two companies are targeting completely separate audiences right now; while Apple has declared its core markets to be content creation and education, Best Buy focuses on the home users (that most people feel Apple should be going after any day now).

As previously reported, Best Buy will continue to carry Mac software, but the measly half-a-percent that Mac sales contributed to their total computer sales numbers just wasn't doing either company much good. Chalk it up to "irreconcilable differences." But if Apple does start going after Joe and Jill Homebody with the rumored sub-$1000 all-in-one Mac this spring/summer, will Best Buy and Apple kiss and make up?