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I just attended the Apple press conference discussing the plans around the acquisition of Next, Inc. My notes from the conference are on the DaveNet website at:
http://www.scripting.com/davenet/misc/appleConf.html
The major surprise from the conference is that the initial release of the new operating system will not run Macintosh applications.
Apple is committed to moving System 7 forward, with releases in January and July, and is encouraging developers to continue to work with the Macintosh APIs.
The new operating system will run on PowerPCs, it's unclear if it will run on 68K machines.
Next has a small installed base of users, numbering in the several hundreds.
Apple's committment to technologies such as QuickDraw GX is unclear. Hancock pointed out that to protect the secrecy of the negotiations they didn't involve all the necessary groups inside Apple, and will determine the answers to many of the questions early in the year. Many questions were answered this way.
It was an interesting experience outlining the proceedings in real time. I posted a notice of it on the News page and many people tuned in while it was going on! Very coool beans.
I see opportunities in the new Apple system. I see some products gaining in power, and others diminishing. I like Hancock, and the way she speaks. It's reassuring to know that an intelligent thoughtful person is in a responsible position at Apple.
I'm not clear whether they truly understand what WebObjects is, or if we misunderstand. They seem to be placing a lot of emphasis on technology that's not particularly unique, especially in the Macintosh server/content tools market.
I want to get this piece out quickly, so that's it for now!
Dave