Holy cats, what a difference a year or two can make. Not very long ago, the overwhelming sentiment in the tech industry was that Apple Computer had ceased to be at all relevant, and it was only a matter of time before they tanked and faded into obscurity. Today, things have turned around a lot: Apple's been profitable for a straight year, ending two years of red ink; the product line is as powerful and exciting as it's ever been, sending sales figures drifting upward; Steve Jobs is still "temporarily" heading up the company, and he's still taking names and kicking butt while smiling for the cameras; and all of that "Apple will be dead or bought out within three months" talk has pretty much subsided. Happy news for all of us in the Mac community, right?

What we didn't expect was that Apple's newfound success would have such a positive effect on the rest of the personal computer industry-- but that's just what Deloitte Consulting is claiming in its latest "Critical Industry Trend Evaluator Report." According to Webintosh, Deloitte claims not only that the PC industry is strong right now, but that Apple's recovery is the "single biggest contributor" to the industry's overall strength and long-term optimism. One of the things that Deloitte does is assign a percentage value to the factors contributing to the "Hope Index," an indicator of confidence in the industry. Apple was slapped with a 0% in 1996; today it carries a whopping 40%.

Sure, Deloitte's CITE Report is just the collective opinion of one batch of industry observers, but the very fact that anyone could cite Apple as the most significant factor in the long-term strength of the PC industry is very significant. It's the kind of thing that makes you take a step back and realize just how much things have changed. Heck, it was only fifteen months ago that Jobs killed the clone market by buying out Power Computing, which many observers at the time thought would be Apple's death blow-- remember that angst-a-thon? So while things aren't perfect at Apple, we're still really glad that among the biggest problems perceived by the user base these days are "not enough slots" and "I miss my floppy drive."

Wanna know why we're not running Apple? We mean, aside from the obvious reasons like we have no formal business training, we'd hire all our friends regardless of their skills, we'd institute a policy that every new Mac made should have a one-of-a-kind swirled two-tone translucent case even if it added $200 to the price, etc. It's because we never would have thought of raising money by using Amazon.com's associate program within Sherlock.

You're probably aware of these associate programs; several e-commerce web sites have deals where you can sign up with them, and put links to their site on your site. Then, if somebody viewing your site clicks through to, say, Vacuum Cleaners Online ("The Web Site That Really Sucks!") and orders a new Electro-Suck 3000™, you would get a small chunk of the profits. Well, according to MacWEEK, Apple's hit upon a cool variation of the idea: the Mac OS 8.5.1 Sherlock plug-ins for Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble include the tags for Apple's associate contract with those organizations. The upshot is, if you use Sherlock to search Amazon.com for a book title, and then click on the found link and buy that book, Apple gets a little bit of cash at the end of the month. Smart! It costs Apple nothing to set up, Sherlock users have the same ease of use they would have without the associate's program stuff embedded, and everybody lives happily ever after.

So if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Apple booster and you like to buy your books online, remember-- using Mac OS 8.5.1's Sherlock to find your latest picks costs you nothing extra, but it kicks a little extra pocket change to Apple. We can't imagine that it's a lot of money, or anything, since the associate's cut seems to be anywhere up to 15% of the profit on each sale, but we're still impressed with the sheer resourcefulness of the idea.

Poor Mac OS X Server-- it just can't seem to catch a break. Back when it was known as NextStep, it had a small but fiercely loyal following among the programmers of the world, but it could never make the transition from "cult movie icon" to "blockbuster star." Its ship seemed to come in when Steve Jobs sold NeXT (and NextStep) to Apple a couple of years ago, as NextStep was groomed to become the next-generation Mac OS-- an operating system with a much bigger audience base. Now working under the screen name of "Rhapsody," it prepped hard behind the scenes, ever hopeful for its grand debut, but the premiere kept getting pushed back for one reason or another. Now, though, despite yet another name change (this time to "Mac OS X Server"), it seems that the latest incarnation of NextStep is just about ready to step out on stage...

...Except now there's a another new star in town that seems to have caught Apple's eye. According to Computer Retail Week, Apple is preparing to ship new PowerPC servers running a flavor of Linux, the free open-source Unix-derived operating system that's captured the hearts and minds of many a geek in the computer world. It's no secret that Apple's been devoting some resources to the development of MkLinux, its own flavor of Linux for use with PowerPC computers, for several years now, but it still seems strange that they'd choose to ship some new Linux-based computers when Mac OS X Server is, by all accounts, ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille. To add insult to injury, Mac OS X Server's guts are also Unix-inspired, and have many (if not all) of the same "modern" operating system features that Linux has. And the announcement of these supposed Linux machines is expected to coincide pretty well with a mightily downplayed introduction of Mac OS X Server, at or shortly after the Macworld Expo in three weeks' time.

The consensus seems to be that if these reports of an Apple-branded Linux computer are true, Apple is releasing them to please the education market, which is reportedly quite enamored with Linux of late. Personally, we at AtAT are just a teensy bit skeptical of these rumors, and we're wondering if someone just got the wires crossed and the servers to be released are actually running the Unix-based Mac OS X Server and not Linux. If that isn't the case, well, then: poor, poor Mac OS X Server-- always a bridesmaid and never a bride. But with some more hard work and extensive behind-the-scenes plastic surgery, it'll emerge again later in 1999, this time as "Mac OS X," with nary a command line or hint of Unix to be seen. Unless, of course, something else comes along to court Apple's fancy...