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CNN is running a Reuters report quoting Apple Chairman Gil Amelio saying that the company plans to release a new line of computers in 1998 that will run an entirely new operating system.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9610/31/apple.reut/index.html
It's clear from the report that the new OS is not System 8, also known as Copland, which is widely believed in the Mac developer community to have failed, although its cancellation has not been announced.
The new system also seems *not* to be the Be operating system, which Apple has been in negotiations to acquire from Be Inc of Menlo Park CA, the company founded by Jean-Louis Gassee, a former top Apple executive. Be's system is already shipping, and it seems that if Apple were acquiring Be, that shipments would begin in early 1997, not 1998.
What is this OS? What will it do? What makes it different? My guess: it has something to do with Java. Will it truly be different? Hmmm. Does Apple have what it takes to compete with Microsoft? Amelio makes it plain that that's what he wants to do.
I'm curious to find out what Apple has in mind.
Stay tuned...
Dave Winer