Okay, so these days everyone's all hepped up on Mac OS X hype, but who remembers when Rhapsody was the Mac's imminent salvation? Lest you think that all Apple did was change the name, let us remind you that Rhapsody was pushed as a multi-platform operating system; we were supposed to be able to run Rhapsody on a Mac, on Intel hardware, and maybe even on UNIX workstations from the likes of Sun and Hewlett-Packard. Even more promising was the cross-platform nature of developing Rhapsody applications. Apple promised that programs developed with the "Yellow Box" APIs (now referred to as "Cocoa" in Mac OS X) were going to run not just on Macs, but on high-end Rhapsody workstations, Rhapsody-enabled Intel systems, and even-- get this-- standard Windows systems, sans Rhapsody, via a set of Yellow Box runtime libraries. It was a developer's dream: write once, run just about anywhere. Like Java, only... not.

Now here's the really interesting bit. Apple actually promised that those golden Yellow Box runtime libraries would be free, meaning that if developers wrote software for Rhapsody, they could ship a Windows version at no additional development or licensing cost. Sounds great, right? Almost too good to be true. Or maybe that "almost" is inaccurate. According to MacRumors (who quotes a Stepwise article we can't load, for some reason), the whole cross-platform nature of Yellow Box development has dissipated into vapor. Apple has no plans to ship Mac OS X for any hardware other than Macs, and all promises of free Yellow Box runtime licenses have been "yanked away." Reportedly, when asked about them, Uncle Steve's response is, "Why not sell your product on the Mac?" Well, Steve, not being developers ourselves, it's probably a little dicey for us to speak on their behalf, but our answer to that question would be another question: "Why not increase the Mac's market share to an installed base even remotely resembling the potential customer pool on the Windows side, so we can make money?"

Anyway, the reason this whole Yellow Box issue caught our attention is, we started wondering whether this was the plan all along. Oh, sure, it's possible that Apple planned to ship and support Rhapsody for Intel and give away those Yellow Box runtime licenses, and then changed its mind once the new Mac hardware started to catch on sales-wise. But we can't help wondering if Apple's broken promises were never meant to be kept-- if they were just the carrot on the stick keeping developers from bailing even faster than they already were. Think about it: it's 1997. Mac market share is at ridiculous lows, the product line is a shambles, developers are deserting for Windows's greener pastures at an alarming pace. But you're Steve, and you know you're going to have a lot of kick-ass hardware coming out in a couple of years. How do you keep those developers on the hook until the Mac is back? Promise Windows compatibility for future Mac applications. That stems the defection, and then when the new Macs are shipping and Apple's the darling of the media again, suddenly it's "What Yellow Box runtimes?" True? Maybe. Clever? Yup. Underhanded? Undoubtedly. Steve? Oh, my, yes.