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Enemy Mine, Friendly Face (4/28/98)
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Politics make strange bedfellows-- and some of the strangest politics yet seen exist squarely in the world of high technology. For instance, take the classic example of Apple and Microsoft; bitter enemies (yes, let's face it) on the operating system front, yet strong allies when it comes to applications. Apple can advertise the numerous ways that the Mac OS is easier and more enjoyable to use than Windows, while then using Microsoft Office as a prime example of productivity software available for the Mac. Similarly, Microsoft can advertise Windows 95's so-called "advantages" over the Mac OS while touting that the Mac version of Office 98 is not only available before the Windows version, but that it also includes features that won't be available on the Windows platform. Apple relies on Microsoft's applications to drive Mac sales, while competing against Windows PCs. Crazy stuff.
That's why last August's Apple-Microsoft agreement wasn't necessarily such a big shock. More than anything, Apple needed the credibility boost that only a Microsoft endorsement could give-- and the guarantee of Mac Office updates for five years does a lot to keep the Mac a viable platform. Indeed, things were looking positively rosy on the collaboration tip with the release of Office 98 for the Mac-- an actual Mac application!-- and the fact that Microsoft had the largest group of Mac developers assembled outside of Apple itself. But is Microsoft's support wavering? Mac the Knife implies that Gates & Co. are planning on chopping a sizeable chunk off of the Mac-rosoft development team, in order to transplant those programmers into the Windows camp.
If true, it's not necessarily indicative of any real pullback from Mac development efforts. Office 98 is done on the Mac side-- and the whole world has seen how much work still needs to be done on Windows 98, thanks to that heavily-publicized crash at Comdex recently. If Bill still expects to ship it by June 25th, he needs to come up with some way of making the product less laughable within the next month or so. I suppose we'll see what the outcome is soon enough. The whole world is watching...
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SceneLink (656)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/28/98 episode: April 28, 1998: AtAT returns to the airwaves, following a brief and unplanned spring hiatus. Meanwhile, Microsoft may be trimming back its Mac development efforts, and Apple publicly reiterates its intent to retake the home market and increase its global slice of the pie...
Other scenes from that episode: 655: We're Back. Sorta. (4/28/98) So didja miss us? ;-) We apologize to all of our faithful viewers for the lapse of the last few days. We have had what amounts to one of the worst weeks in recorded history (on top of the tragedy of losing a beloved family member, we also had moments of just plain irritation-- such as a flight delayed over two hours on the ground while the flight crew tried to scrounge up a spare set of emergency fire goggles, as well as being hit en route to the cremation by the woman that AtAT fact checker/minutiae goddess Katie now refers to as the "stupid crack whore in the Nissan Pathfinder"), but most of that's behind us now; we're back in our Boston home office and ready to tackle the goofy world of Apple again... 657: Home Again, Home Again (4/28/98) Apple's intended push to re-enter the home market with a vengeance this fall is becoming more regularly publicized in the mainstream tech press. For example, there's this Reuters article floating around, which quotes Apple senior VP of worldwide sales Mitch Mandich as saying that Apple is poised to "get reinvigorated in the consumer market.....
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