Funny thing-- maybe we're going to have to pay more attention to the innuendoes of our breakfast foods from now on, because today the cryptic omen we found in our Alpha-Bits last Friday came true: according to an official Apple press release, starting today, every single Mac that Apple sells will come pre-loaded with a shiny new copy of Mac OS X. That's a solid two months ahead of schedule (well, ahead of the most recent schedule, anyway-- remember when Mac OS X was going to ship by the end of 1999?), and we see this as happy times split three ways.

First of all, Apple benefits by getting the future of the Macintosh into the hands of more users as early as possible. Meanwhile, with a bigger installed base, software developers suddenly have a lot more incentive to get their Carbon and Cocoa wares onto shelves-- the money's there for the harvesting. And all those diverse Mac users buying new rigs who would previously have had to spend another $129 to get that shimmering Aqua goodness can now blow that extra cash on whatever else is on the shopping list: peripherals, extra software, storage media, baby formula, hedge clippers, Fabergé eggs, firearms, smack, whores, etc. It's a win-win-win situation! (Note: smack and whores are not currently available in Apple retail stores; we suspect firearms will be stocked in the "Etc." section of some locations, however.)

Note, though, that while all new Macs will indeed have Mac OS X on their disks and ready to rock, they'll actually be configured to boot into Mac OS 9 by default. Those of you who are already using Mac OS X are probably breathing a collective sigh of relief for Apple's customers, its tech support staff, and the welfare of the Mac platform as a whole-- nice as it is, Mac OS X 10.0.3 still isn't exactly as user-friendly as it needs to be before Apple unleashes it upon the user community as a whole; applications are still lacking, perceived speed is a mite sluggish (according to an article in The Register, Apple knows and speeding things up is currently its top priority), and overall, Mac OS 9 is still a lot more polished-- for obvious reasons. So we think Apple's made a best-of-both-worlds decision: customers who want to use Mac OS X can leap right in without needing to spend any extra money or time, while everyone else is still greeted by Mac OS 9's super-welcoming face.

However, we still believe that Macworld Expo this July will be Mac OS X's real "coming-out party," as Apple calls it. At that time, we're guessing, to coincide with the introduction of a spiffy new line of iMacs, Apple will throw the big cartoony toggle switch and all new Macs won't just come with Mac OS X pre-installed-- they'll come configured to boot Mac OS X right out of the box. Until then, the company's development gnomes will be busily polishing Aqua and its underlying guts to a bright, healthy sheen suitable for consumption by Mac fans and newbies alike. There's still a lot of work to do, and two more months isn't likely to produce perfection, but we're confident that Apple will come as close as humanly possible.