Re: tlug: Success of Windows

["Jonathan Byrne" <jpmag@example.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Gavin Walker <gwalker@example.com>

>Just to throw in my two yen. Why not ditch the MacOS and just keep the
>user interface? Run it on top of PPC Linux. That way you get to keep
>the stability of Linux, and yet have a proven GUI with a style guide
>and a fanatical user base.


Well, this was basically what was going to happen with the Rhapsody
project; it was going to be the MacOS GUI sitting on top of UNIX in the
form of the NextStep operating system, basically.  But once again, Apple
whipped out that big .44 and blew its foot clean off.  Rhapsody is
essentially dead and pieces of it will appear in MacOS X (OS/X would
sound cool, but unfortunately, they're pronouncing it "ten"), much like
how they killed Copland and put bits and pieces of it into various parts
of System 7.  Copland was an OS with the potential to prevent Windows 95
from ever coming into being, and Rhapsody was one with the potential to
really go head-to-head with both NT and UNIX.  Failing on this front
once again may someday prove to be the final nail in the Apple coffin.
MS will use Windows 98 to squeeze them harder than ever, prices on PCs
will keep falling, and become even more cost-competitive with Macs than
they are now, and the Apple market share will likely shrink still
further.

It may eventually turn out, if Apple bites the dust, that the decent PPC
Macs eventually all wind up in the hands of Linux users.  After all, a
300  MHz G3 running PPC Linux is probably quite a machine.

Jonathan

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