Part of the DaveNet Mail website. San Francisco CA USA. 11/5/96.

Let's Have Fun -- Now! RE> TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Sent:11/5/96; 3:53:18 PM
From: msimmons@macaddict.com (Mark Simmons)

Hi Dave!

Nice column today. I echo your sentiments - especially this:

> I am opposed to Apple's acquisition of Be. License the Be OS > as-is, invest in Be Inc. if they'll let you, but keep Apple's > engineers and execs away from it.

No offense to Apple's employees, but if throwing extra money and engineering manpower at an operating system were a guaranteed way to speed up its development, Copland would have already shipped. Be has been doing a good job so far; they've said they aren't hard up for capital or resources; let 'em keep doing what they're doing.

As far as Apple's operating system, apparently they're doing pretty much what you suggest. Copland has been scrapped, and the parts that can be adapted for use with System 7 will be used in upcoming System 7 releases. The longer-term strategy is still a thing of mystery, but whatever Apple ships as a followup to System 7, it won't be the Mac OS 8 they were touting earlier this year. After Apple PR told us this last week, the company's recent pronouncements finally started making sense.

While it's nice that System 7 development will continue, it may not get the features you've been lobbying for - a less screwy file system, for starters. That may have to wait for whatever Apple does next.

Okay, now to indulge in a bit of rank speculation. The interesting thing about the Be rumors is that they posit Apple switching to a far less feature-laden operating system - one with only a fraction of the technological bells & whistles that have been loaded onto System 7. Whether such a new OS would come from Be or not, it would give Mac users a weird dilemma - choose between a feature-rich but antiquated old OS, or a robust but spartan new one. Not the best of all possible worlds, but probably much more feasible than delivering a system that's both modern and baroque; as you point out, that would just mean Copland II.

Have fun,

-- Mark

Let's Have Fun -- Now!

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