Apple Archive

There are certain perennial debates amongst the technical community, constantly revisited with differing outcomes for each person. Linux vs. Windows, KDE vs. Gnome, Mac vs. PC - they are unwinnable arguments, and although the outcome varies overtime with each successive release or new piece of hardware, they consistently gain our attention. When presented with the opportunity to borrow a Macintosh for a little over a month, I jumped at the chance to resolve one of these debates for myself. The question was: Can the Mac replace my PC?

"Apple picked the worst possible time to take the biggest risk imaginable. Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server are unqualified hits on everything from $999 notebooks through entry servers. Developers are climbing onto the platform in droves, as well they should. I can't say it emphatically enough: Apple is a serious player in the broad IT market now." Read the editorial at InfoWorld.

"Once again, the buzz says its end is nigh. Too bad Jobs & Co. is too busy satisfying consumers to go along with the doomsayers". Read the article at BusinessWeek. "Until recently, very few users and essentially no enterprises would give any thought to Apple as a server vendor. Small wonder, since Apple hadn't been trying to compete seriously in the server market. Things have changed." Read the article at ZDNews. Also, Apple Computer on Wednesday updated its entire portable line, most notably adding its first PowerBook capable of burning DVDs and a faster iBook.

Apple's senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Avie Tevanian, and Director of Mac OS Product Marketing Ken Bereskin met with InfoWorld Test Center Director Steve Gillmor, News Editor Mark Jones, Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz, Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell, and Technical Director Tom Yager to discuss Web services, digital rights management, Bluetooth, and Apple's plans for the enterprise.

Jordan Hubbard, formerly head of FreeBSD development, and now of Apple MacOS X/Darwin fame, talks frankly about UNIX, Apple's MacOS X, BSD, and the business of competing in the consumer computer world in this MacCentral article. In it, we see some of his impressions on the present and future of MacOS X, opinions on Motorola's CPU's in Apple products, and what it takes to get ISV support.

When it comes to using computers, it used to be (and still rings true today) that most people find the Mac platform to be either loathsome or lovable with few spectators taking middle ground on the issue.

"A deluge of reader mail has opened my eyes to some very sound reasons why the Motorola PowerPC chip's days may be numbered I love nothing better than stirring up a hornet's nest. And that's just what I did with my recent column about whether Apple should abandon its current PowerPC microprocessor for a Pentium-family chip, like those that power most Windows PCs (see BW Online, 9/11/02, "Mac and PC: Ne'er the Twain Will Meet")." Read the new editorial at BusinessWeek. Update: iSync beta!

From MacMinute: Apple today announced that it is "open-sourcing" the code for the company's Rendezvous networking technology. Rendezvous, based on open Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Standard Protocols, uses industry standard networking protocols and zero configuration technology to automatically discover and connect devices over any IP network.

"Apple Computer is looking toward a 64-bit future for the Mac -- courtesy of PowerPC partner IBM. According to sources, IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, is working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for use in the latter's high-end desktops and servers. Sources said Apple is testing the CPU, dubbed the GigaProcessor Ultralite (GPUL) on Mac OS X-based hardware at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and making sure that the processor complies with a new bus architecture on tap for future Macs. In addition, IBM plans to offer the processor as the centerpiece of future Linux-based systems, the sources said." Read the interesting article at eWeek. Also from eWeek recently, they reported that Apple is backporting to the x86 as a fallback plan.

An eWeek article notes that Apple Computer is reorganizing the OS 9 engineering effort, presumably re-assigning engineers to work on OSX-related projects. Also, a former head of OS Engineering at Apple will be moving to Apple's Powerschool division.

"It has now been a few years (over 5) since NeXT took over Apple, and they’ve had time to implement their ideas. OS X is shipping in it’s 3rd version, and I think we can recap and try to learn from history. Let’s recap. In the mid 1990’s Apple had been working hard on Copland. This was a new kernel underneath the MacOS and new UI and features up above. It was bringing MacOS into the 90’s (and into the next millennium)." Read the interesting article at iGeek. Three more Apple-related articles today, an editorial about OSX 10.2 here, printing capabilities of OSX and more from Seybold here and why OSX on Intel would be bad for Apple is here.

Apple today announced that starting in January 2003, all new Mac models will only boot into MacOSX as the start-up operating system, though they will retain the ability to run most Mac OS 9 applications through Apple's bundled 'Classic' software. There are nearly 4,000 native applications now available for Mac OS X. In the meantime, Apple released iCal. iCal is an elegant personal calendar application that helps you manage your life and your time. iCal lets you keep track of your appointments and events with multiple calendars featuring at-a-glance views of upcoming activities by day, week or month.

MacNN reports on some unofficial IBM comments that took place in a briefing of IBM's high performance computing technology meeting. The asked presenter said that the Power4 derivative CPU is not for Apple. Its 160 instructions that will be introduced in the new CPU are not Altivec and that IBM pitched the desktop Power4 to Apple, but Apple was not interested. This new information, if true, again turns the posibility for the future of the Macs to x86 as the Motorola G5 is a dead horse by all accounts, OSNews heard. eWeek recently reported in the existance of an x86-based MacOSX, codenamed Marklar.

Mention the name "Woz," and most Mac users will know exactly who you're talking about. After all, they've been enjoying the fruits of Steve Wozniak's labors for years. Wozniak spends spends most of his time these days focusing on Wheels of Zeus, a company he helped form to develop wireless consumer electronic products, but he still pays attention to that other company he helped establish with Steve Jobs 26 years ago. "I love OS X from a feeling point of view. But from capability and readiness, I still don't rate it ready for me, I'm sorry to say." Woz says.