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Of Mammals and Burnings (3/17/99)
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By the way, we suppose this whole Darwin thing puts an end to the speculation about just what the heck was up with Apple's registration of the "mammals.org" domain name. Darwin, as you probably know, is Apple's publicly-available open-source operating system that is based on Mac OS X Server's foundation layers. Meaning, any developer can download the guts of Mac OS X Server and change it to his or her liking. Those changes get reported back to Apple, and the best ones-- security patches, speed boosts, stability improvements, etc.-- get rolled into the next "official" version of Apple's new server operating system. It's software evolution in action; only those software changes beneficial to the survival of the operating system are retained in the virtual "gene pool."
And so, as pointed out by several faithful AtAT viewers (including Dan Brown, Masson, John Stansel, and Keith Lim), mammals are currently the evolutionary pinnacle of life on this planet, and hence the name fits. The ".org" designation of the domain name indicates a not-for-profit enterprise, and we wouldn't be at all surprised if mammals.org soon became something like an online forum, hosted by Apple, for outside developers to discuss the use of Darwin. Or a repository for third-party shared code. Something like that. (At last check, it still just points to Apple's home page.)
Incidentally, faithful viewer Deacon raises a very interesting point about Apple's choice of the whole evolutionary motif: "Remember many moons ago when a toaster Mac was attacked by religious types because its retail price was $666.00? Well, wait till news spreads to those still living in the 14th century that Apples "evolution" (mammals.org) to a better OS will be based on an Open Source initiative codenamed Darwin. Macintosh computers will be burned in huge open pits by the faithful as a warning to the heretical Apple engineers. Mark my Words!!! It's the End I tell you, The End!!" Oh, the very notion of piles of burning Macs just brings a tear to our collective eye... So when can we expect the fundamentalist backlash?
Addendum: Faithful viewer Robert Fernando points out that, in fact, the "diabolical" Mac price listed above "was actually the price of the original Apple '1' computer, a price proposed by Jobs to get attention. And the actual price if I remember correctly was $666.66. I guess it worked though, since people remember it as just another part of Apple lore to this day." Nifty!
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SceneLink (1405)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/17/99 episode: March 17, 1999: Just one day after Apple announced Darwin, open-source advocates have qualms about the wording of Apple's Public Source License. Meanwhile, the fact that Apple's first public-source OS is named Darwin would seem to put to rest the speculation about "mammals.org," and Apple gets into the St. Patrick's Day spirit with a special on Lime iMacs...
Other scenes from that episode: 1404: Source of Suspicion (3/17/99) And here comes the backlash, mild though it may be... Only one day after Apple announced that it was making portions of its new Mac OS X Server operating system "open-source," some advocates of the open-source movement are expressing concern over certain portions of Apple's Public Source License... 1406: Comes With Free Beer (3/17/99) Ah, St. Patrick's Day-- the day on which everyone's Irish and the green beer flows like a mighty river. Personally, it doesn't rank as one of our favorite holidays of all time-- after all, we don't drink, we look terrible in green, and no one even gets any presents...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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