Whatever happened to those good old Apple surprises? Following two less-than-shocking keynotes at the most recent Macworld Expo shows in Tokyo and San Francisco, we figure we Mac fans are about due for an exciting Apple "media event." You know the kind we mean: one like that November 10th hootenanny in 1997, at which Apple unveiled the Power Mac G3 and the new build-to-order Apple Store. Or a day like May 5th, 1998, on which Apple not only introduced the sleek new PowerBook G3 Series, but they also threw the world for a loop by taking the wraps off the funky blue iMac. Heck, even tomorrow's scheduled press conference looks to be a relative snore; after all, Apple's expected to announce the immediate availability of Mac OS X Server, an operating system that by any account is anywhere from a few weeks to several months late anyway. Yeah, unparalleled power, sure, unprecedented ease of administration for a Unix-based OS, yadda yadda yadda. (Now where's that P1?)

And yet, we continue to hold out hope that tomorrow's announcements really will include some nice "surprises." First of all, there's the issue of Mac OS X Server's price. While the whole world was expecting it to cost just a hair under $1000, a CNET article confirms a tip we got from an anonymous faithful viewer from within Apple's walls: now Steve's expected to announce that the spiffy new operating system will actually only cost between about $300 and $600, depending on configuration. That's quite a bargain for such a robust server OS; pricewise, it knocks Windows NT into a cocked hat. It's still not as cheap as Linux, of course, but considering what you get for the money, Apple's rumored new pricing structure seems more than reasonable.

Speaking of Linux, it's not just potential NT users that Apple's targeting; the other interesting bit about tomorrow's do is that Apple is reportedly going after Linux users and developers with a vengeance. Steve is expected to play up the partially "open-source" aspect of their new operating system, possibly even trotting out some big names in the open-source movement to lend the idea credence. Don't expect any Apple operating system to become fully open-source anytime in the foreseeable future, though-- you all know how Apple likes to keep a tight rein on things. About the best we can expect right now is that Apple will work very hard with developers who try to optimize performance on Apple hardware. Okay, so this stuff isn't exactly earth-shattering news from One Infinite Loop, but there's still the chance that Steve has a couple of aces up his sleeve. Stay tuned to learn more...