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What's NeXT For Apple (6/11/00)
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Back when Steve retook the helm of Apple and started making tough decisions, we recall more than a little angst in the Mac community from those who felt that Apple was being transformed into NeXT. High-ranking NeXT employees were being hoisted into top Apple executive positions, and Steve ran the company while using not a PowerBook, but a Toshiba laptop running the NeXT operating system. With the new Mac OS to be based on NeXTSTEP and Steve in a position of near-absolute power, would any vestiges of the "classic" Apple survive?
In these more enlightened times, of course, we can all see that those fears have proven unwarranted. The Mac OS we all know and love has received continued updates, making it stronger than ever before. Mac OS X, while still NeXT at its core, seems to be sufficiently Mac-like to quell the fears of most of the community, Aqua's oddball interface changes notwithstanding. And the primary catalyst of Apple's return to greatness was the iMac-- not a hyper-expensive geek fetish box targeted at the science crowd, but a happy little consumer Mac that charmed the world with its low price, small footprint, and stylish colors. So Apple's still Apple, and not NeXT. After all, it's not like Apple's shipped a cube, right?
Whoops... Spoke too soon. If Mac OS Rumors isn't just blowing smoke, then it sounds like the next-generation Power Mac G4 may in fact be the NeXT-generation Power Mac G4. Apparently "UMA-2" G4 systems are already being tested in several top-secret locations, featuring multiple prototype G4 processors and lots of other high-tech gear all crammed into a completely new enclosure. This new case has "a wider form factor than today's Graphite minitowers-- nearly cube-shaped, in fact." Natural progression necessitated by the new G4's internal components, or a cut-and-dried case of Apple's NeXTification? We'll know if the thing ships as all-black. (Personally, if Apple's going to ship an all-black computer, given that next year's 2001, we'd rather see the G4 take on a more monolith-shaped form factor instead.)
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SceneLink (2348)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/11/00 episode: June 11, 2000: Years of emotional abuse hurled at the British have drastically affected Apple's UK sales figures-- they're up 46%. Meanwhile, a semi-cubic G4 enclosure hints at a NeXT revival, and while Microsoft lobbies politicians to get the government to lighten up, Bill dons a new sweater and takes his case to the people...
Other scenes from that episode: 2347: Take It And Like It (6/11/00) Here's a fun thought experiment: if a large computer corporation were to alienate an entire country and culture by systematically cancelling trade shows year after year, discontinuing localized software products, and eliminating local sales and marketing departments, what would happen to its market share?... 2349: Next Time, Try Green (6/11/00) The case may be over, but it sounds like Microsoft's just beginning to fight. It figures, of course, that all through the "Redmond Justice" trial, Microsoft seemed to treat the whole thing as a joke, but now that a final ruling's been made, the company has decided it's finally time to go to war...
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