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Moving the Finish Line (2/8/98)
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Stand back-- Apple's "refining the timetable and feature sets" for its upcoming operating system releases, according to a MacWEEK article, and I think we all know what that means. A year ago Apple committed to a rigid release timetable for both the Mac OS and Rhapsody, and so far they've managed to stick to their guns pretty well. However, now that things are starting to slip a little, Apple's coming up with some creative ways of keeping "on time."
First of all, there's Allegro, the next Mac OS release slated for this summer. According to MacWEEK's sources, Allegro is now being renamed "Allegro Lite" and several features originally planned for the release are being cut in order to make the release date; if all features were kept (such as Navigation Services, the long-overdue overhaul of the Open and Save dialogs), the system wouldn't ship until October. Hmmm, jettisoning features in order to meet a ship date... Sound familiar to anyone? Reminiscent of a certain "fenestrative operating system" released a few years ago?
As for Rhapsody, Apple ditched the "Premiere" and "Unified" concept a while ago; Premiere was to be the first customer release, and it was originally due last month. Now, Rhapsody's release is set for a second developer release next month, and the first customer release early this summer, or hopefully an unveiling at May's Developer Conference. Customer Release 2 takes the place of Unified, and now will appear in 1999. On the plus side, CR1 will include the Blue Box Mac OS compatibility layer, which means that customers receive that technology in about the same time frame as originally planned.
We're not too worried about the schedule shifts. At least, not until Allegro is officially named "Mac OS 98."
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SceneLink (432)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/8/98 episode: February 8, 1998: Apple's learned a thing or two about slipping on OS release schedules, and is now redefining what qualifies as "on time." Meanwhile, those retailers who had their Macs pulled out from under them are barely shrugging at the change, and finally Bill Gates' fashion sense is explained...
Other scenes from that episode: 433: Spilt Milk, Or Not (2/8/98) Apparently nobody's too sad about Apple's recent pullout of all non-CompUSA national reseller chains. According to MacCentral, those retailers who were cut from the Mac business don't expect to see any change in their bottom lines... 434: Trust No One (2/8/98) As the AtAT staff is sadly too exhausted to bring you a decent conspiracy theory right now (our paranoia muscles are overworked), we are grateful in the extreme for My Mac Magazine, whose "Mac Factor" column this month draws back the veil of obfuscation and reveals all...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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