|
Who? What? Where? (10/19/98)
|
 
|
| | |
Ah, Rhapsody... What a long, strange trip it's been. That operating system has had such a bizarre and mutating development life, hasn't it? It was about two years ago that Apple announced that Copland, officially named Mac OS 8, had been cancelled outright, and that Apple was then searching around for an outside technology upon which to base its next-generation operating system. A couple of months later, they bought NeXT, expecting to use NeXTstep as the heart of the future Mac OS. A bunch of relatively confusing plans were released, involving Yellow Boxes and Blue Boxes and an "advanced Mac OS look and feel," and most of us said we'd just wait for the thing to be released before trying to fully understand it. Of course, even its release schedule became confusing, with Premiere and Unified versions giving way to Customer Releases 1 and 2, none of which have actually shipped yet, despite the revised release schedule which placed CR1 to be out by early summer. Most recently, of course, CR1 was renamed Mac OS X Server, due at the end of the summer, but still not yet available.
Whew! Confused yet? Just wait, it gets better. Now Don Crabb, the Mac world's closest equivalent to a cross between Ralph Nader and Andy Rooney, reports that Mac OS X Server may have been cancelled outright, just like Copland was. In a MacCentral article, he claims that when several Apple representatives in Europe were approached about Mac OS X Server's release date, they said that "this product was internally cancelled already but that there was no official statement yet." Now, we're hoping for Apple's sake that this statement is false, because canceling Mac OS X Server now would put a pretty hefty strain on the company's credibility. After all, Mac OS X (the real thing) isn't due for about another year yet, and there are lots of Mac customers out there who could benefit from a server OS right now.
On the other hand, Mac OS Rumors has a completely different take on the Mac OS X Server sitch: they claim that the operating system's first (and very likely only) customer release has gone "golden master," meaning that it's ready for duplication. That's sort of the antithesis of being cancelled. at least in some respects. Several sources report that Mac OS X Server is ready to go, but since Mac OS 8.5 was a little late and didn't ship until a few days ago, the release of Mac OS X Server has been very quietly held off so as not to steal 8.5's thunder. In this game it all comes down to whom you believe. Our personal feeling is that Mac OS X Server will be released sometime in November. But why would you believe us?
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (1085)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/19/98 episode: October 19, 1998: The name "Mac OS X Server" is on everyone's lips, but is it due to be released any day now, or has it been cancelled outright? Meanwhile, the "Redmond Justice" premiere leads off with a bang, and something fishy's going on with Pentium-equipped iMacs showing up on CompUSA's web site...
Other scenes from that episode: 1086: The Big Premiere (10/19/98) Finally! After months and months of waiting, the official trial has started in the "Redmond Justice" case, kicking off the new fall litigation season. Microsoft and the Department of Justice squared off for their first day in court, and the buzz is that the cast definitely hasn't disappointed the viewers... 1087: The "Other" iMac (10/19/98) By now most of AtAT's faithful viewers are aware of the running gag known as "Apple products in CompUSA's Sunday circulars." It's harder to find Mac hardware in one of those than it is to find an actual peanut in a modern box of Cracker Jacks...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
