Well, its December 31st, last day of 1996, and after talking to a lot of
people and reading up on Dave Winer's postings, I decided that getting
all of my thoughts, no matter how disconnected they may be, down on
"paper" was a god idea.
For the first time in 12 years, I'm pretty confused. This whole
Apple/NeXT deal has left me in a feverish state of mind; Sometimes I'm
jazzed and ready to go and at others I am chilled to the bone. This
concerns me, as I am a pretty staunch Mac biggot, so if I am getting
chills, what about all those Mac people who really don't give a damn?
I'll admit, I think the NeXT deal is the only choice Apple had. Apple
had proven to the world that it had problems engineering large projects
and keeping its engineering talent for those projects. BeOS, which I am
still waiting for, looks promising, but its nowhere near as mature as
NeXTStep. Thats something we have to live with.
But something struck me the other day, and I was wondering what you
thought. The Macintosh is popular because its a Macintosh. It has a
persona. I still vividly see that black and white image of the Mac team
in the January, 1984 issue of BYTE Magazine.
But now there are three operating systems for my Mac. System 7, "The
Mac," NeXTMacOS, "The Mac Deluxe without pickles," and BeOS, "OS for the
Geeks in us" So what do you ask? Well, now, having three operating
systems forces Macintosh owners to confront the fact that their Mac is,
well, a lowly COMPUTER? Heavens sake! What? Its my Macintosh! Its not
a computer!
Sure, it is. Kinda like those Intel boxes, only built better. The
psychological effect equates their Macintosh with a PC. This could have
ramifications that would befuddle Freud.
I know too many Mac people who either work at Microsoft or have Windows
NT 4.0 boxes and are starting to *like* them. Shudder. NT is far ahead
of the Mac OS in terms of stability, however.
Where do I stand at the end of 1996? As a Geek, I'm totally buzzed. New
OSes to learn, new languages to learn, new roads to pave. What Geek
could ask for anything more?
As a developer and mortgage holder, I am scared compilerless. Will the
key Apple technology I rely on move to NeXTStep? When? Will key Apple
engineers be moved off of System 7 development to do the NeXTStep ports?
What will that do to our timetables? Will Apple lose even more key
people? What is Apple doing to retain them?
I'm going to try and get into the keynote on Tuesday. Sure, I can read
Dave's postings, but I want to *be* there. I want to feel the room. I
want to see Gil's and Ellen's and Steve's eyes. That will say a lot to
me.
I'll also have a checklist. This checklist will be the screenplay for a
great movie. Apple will need to fill in the nouns, verbs and cast. If
the movie at least sounds like a winner, I'll feel better. If it reminds
me of Beavis and Butthead, I'm gonna be pissed.
Whats on the checklist? For starters:
* Timetable for Apple technologies
* QuickTime (full API)
* GX
* HyperCard
* OSA
* Compatibility
* PowerPCs? Which?
* NuBus machines?
* 68K?
* Intel PCs? When?
* Cost
* Better blow this OS out there
* User Interface
* Will this thing look like a Mac or a NeXT or both?
* I'd like to keep the NeXT scroll bars, scroll arrows and concepts
of window layers
instead of application layers
* Development
* Where is my free NeXTStep for Pentium CD ROM so I can leave now and
start helping Apple?
* Should waive WWDC fee for Apple Partners - You want us, ask us over.
* Will there be a Objective C *runtime* for Windows 95/NT 4.0?
I applaud Dave Winer for giving us developers a voice in the world, no
matter how much we may agree or disagree with that voice. Apple needs to
hear us and hear us loudly. Apple needs ever developer it can get.
If there was no Microsoft, what would we be talking about today? I
wonder....
I'm going to do my best to not knee jerk and toss my hands in the air.
At the very least, Apple's decision has caused a lot of soul searching.
I wish I was financially set so I could just sit down and write cool
MacNextWhatever software for the betterment of mankind. Alas, I am not
and cannot afford to do so. Anyone have a few million laying around?
I'd work for free. :)
Steve
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Steve Riggins
Geeks R Us
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A GEEK'S PERSPECTIVE