Okay, we've calmed down a bit about Apple using Windows 2000 to power the beta version of its new Knowledge Base support site. We accept Apple's explanation that the software they're using isn't available for Mac OS X yet-- although since the software in question is apparently Apple's own WebObjects, they have no one to blame for that but themselves-- and that once it's ready, the Knowledge Base will be powered by Mac OS X through and through. In the meantime, Windows 2000 it is. Unfortunately, in some ways WebObjects under Win2K may be an improvement over the strange doings at Apple's support site... or the fact that Apple would let Win2K in the door may simply be just another symptom of a larger problem.

It's like this: MacInTouch noted a web-based comment form located at Apple's support site which allows customers to send feedback to the company about topics ranging from products to resellers to business policies-- people who mourned the recent passing of the Amelio-era "leadership@apple.com" email address may find this an acceptable replacement when it comes time to unleash a stream of unsolicited advice in the general direction of Cupertino. Sounds good, right? Except we were wondering just how customers would find this magical feedback form unless, say, a friendly soap opera provided a direct link to the page. So we headed over to Apple's main Support Page and started digging. Our first stop? The Support Site Index prominently linked at the bottom of the page. What we saw there was far too baffling for a sleepy Monday morning.

It's since been fixed, but the first several times we loaded up Apple's Support Site Index, it looked like this. Apparently the alphabet on Steve's home planet has 113 letters which, for the most part, look just like the letters in our own Roman alphabet, although several of the Steveworld letters seem to display variations too subtle for the human eye to detect-- we count eleven instances of what looks to us like a simple capital "S," though there's obviously more there than our pitiful human brains can grasp. Either that, or we're looking at a series of base pairs in the complex genetic code for Steve's alien race. In any event, it's most certainly not what Apple intended people to see when they went looking for a simple map of the company's Support Site.

Just for the heck of it, we decided to see what platform happened to be serving the Support Site Index's wacky fun. Ready for this? It's a Mac. It's not running Mac OS X, or Mac OS X Server-- just good ol' Mac OS and a version of WebSTAR that could use an update. Now, we certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that using the Mac OS as a server platform somehow leads to security breaches of genetic code files or odd reorderings of the alphabet, but we were struck by the juxtaposition between the main site and the Knowledge Base. Personally, our theory is that the Mac is upset at Windows 2000 having moved in next door, and occasionally gets flustered and throws quiet little tantrums. We suppose it could have just been a programming error, but what are the odds of that happening?