Over the years, one of the most entertaining pastimes borne of the platform wars has been Mac Spotting-- finding evidence of Macs or Mac use in unlikely or ironic circumstances. For instance, the classic example from way back when is the old saw about how Intel's 3D animated flying Pentium ad was actually made on Macs. In fact, according to one version of the story, the ad agency tried to create the commercial on Pentium-based Wintel systems, but had to switch back to Macs because the PCs just weren't cutting it; Intel freaked when word hit the streets and sued the agency, or had all its directors shot or something. Fun, right?

And there have been dozens of lesser stories like that piling up over the years. Someone reported that the Windows 95 logo and boxes were designed on a Mac. We once found several animated graphics at Microsoft's web site that had been created with GIFBuilder, a Mac-only application. Seemingly more often than not, Wintel computers pictured in retail circulars are shown with the Mac OS on their screens. Happy stuff like that sustained the Mac community through some tough times; it wasn't necessarily productive to throw those facts at Wintel drones who ridiculed our Platform of Choice, but sometimes it felt really good. Unfortunately, none may escape the unyielding cycle of karma, and so the whole "Mac Spotting" thing may be about to turn around and smack us all in the collective face.

Faithful viewer Milo Auckerman found something rather disturbing while he was messing around with the public beta of the new Apple Knowledge Base, the upcoming replacement for the Tech Info Library. Oh, sure, the Knowledge Base looks chock full of Aqua-y goodness, and its usage protocol, which may seem a bit alien compared to other search engines, is perhaps more Mac-like than the TIL's-- but there's a dark secret lurking just under the candy-coated surface. A quick check at NetCraft reveals that the Knowledge Base is running on (gasp!) Windows 2000. Shades of body snatchers and pod people...

Could it be? Could Apple really be admitting that Win2K is the best server platform when it comes to hosting web front-ends for database-housed information? It was painful enough when Steve moved Apple's main web site from actual Macs to Sun workstations running UNIX. But to publicly embrace Win2K? Say it ain't so! Unfortunately, there's no escaping the truth-- and as for why Apple would willingly place itself squarely in the middle of what may turn out to be a public relations debacle of mammoth proportions, John Phelps (the forum leader of Apple Support Discussions) had this to say: "The Mac OS X version of the software is not available yet; once it is, the Knowledge Base will be running on that." Oh, so Apple doesn't actually like Win2K-- they just have to use it because the software they need to use isn't available for any other operating systems. We feel much better now.

Fear not, though, staunch advocates of the Macintosh Way; there will always be positive examples to raise your spirits. When Mac OS X ships and more native software starts to appear, Windows 2000 might find itself facing some serious non-Linux competition. In the meantime, there are still several web sites out there running on Macs-- MacInTouch, for one, and even the channel you're watching now. Granted, AtAT's traffic is the teeniest fraction of what apple.com has to handle every day, but when the show premiered nearly three years ago, we made a promise that it'd always be broadcast from Macs, and that's still in effect to this day. The Mac Web Poster Children, that's us...