Speaking of products from Apple that we might otherwise have seen by now (hey, we sort of were!), what about Rhapsody? Apple's next-generation (and NeXT-generation) operating system has seen so many strategy changes it's well-nigh unrecognizable now; if we could go back in time and tell a Mac developer in, say, May of 1997 about Apple's current Mac OS X plans, he'd never believe it, though we bet he'd love the idea. As for Rhapsody itself, though, that's now known as Mac OS X Server, and it consists of a Macified NeXT/UNIX-based operating system, plus Webobjects and the Apache web server, all for $995. At that price point, it's definitely not the average user's desktop operating system (nor should it be-- it's not nearly as friendly as the Mac OS, from what we've seen), but it's a kick-ass system to use for central file- or web-serving.

Or, at least it would be, if it were actually available. It seems like we've been waiting for Rhapsody/Mac OS X Server forever; every time Apple's deadline was about to be missed, suddenly the "strategy" would change, the definition of Rhapsody would be tweaked, and a new date would be set. The good news, though, is that after months and months of waiting, it seems like Mac OS X Server is truly just around the corner. Mac OS Rumors claims that the operating system has just gone "golden master," meaning that the code has been frozen and the software has been sent to the manufacturing plants. Right now, somewhere CD after CD of Mac OS X Server is being pressed, and the software should be available to its admittedly somewhat limited market by the middle of this month. On top of that, blue and white G3 servers preloaded with Mac OS X Server will reportedly be available at the Apple Store within a couple of weeks.

If this is true, it's the end of one era and the beginning of another. While we at AtAT have very little use for Mac OS X Server ourselves (AtAT is humming along just fine with Mac OS 8.5.1, thank you very much), there must be plenty of organizations out there who could use a server that accepts thousands of concurrent users, allows network booting of Mac clients, can stream QuickTime video in real time, and includes an incredibly rich and powerful framework for the development of complex web-based applications. We're interested to see who jumps on the technology first, and how it holds up. (If anyone wants to send us a free copy, sure, we'll take a look. ;-)