Home
About
Apple
Career
Experiences
General
Graphics
Hardware
History
Humor
Interface
Networking
OS
Opinion
Politics
Programming
Quotes
Reviews
Security
Software
Sound
Thought
Web
Cheap International
Airfare Online
Wachovia online banking
Get Free Coupons Online
Finding the perfect
discount hot tub
Payday Loans
Stock Trading Online
Stuffed Animals
Smart Investing Online
|
|
Jaguar
The return of System 7
By: David K. Every
|
Kind:
Created:
Size: |
Article
2002-05-12 00:00:00
5 KB |
|
|
 |
 I was at Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) this year. This is like the 8th time I've been; so I watch trends as well as the individual show. What I'm not going to do, nor have ever done, is violate my NDA's (Non-Disclosure Agreements), and discuss the technologies in depth. But Apple has stated that the Keynote was not covered under NDA, and I can let you know what trends I've seen, and views I've gathered.
Apple showed a slide with the new features of Jaguar summed up. Ironically, this was complete deja vu for me; since I'd seen the same feature set with the announcements of System 7 (and later 7.1 pro); most of these technologies were under the moniker of AOCE (Apple Open Collaboration Environment).
Zero-Conf; Zero-Configuration discovery of other devices, is the return of AppleTalk. Point to point file sharing, is AppleShare. New and Improved email and address management was also part of AOCE. The new find function harkens back to System 7 and System 8 (or Copland). Quartz Extreme returns us to QuickDraw and QuickDraGX functionality. Even Universal Access was a pre-System 7 feature. Not to mention QuickTime improvements, better printing, spring loaded folders, development tool features returning, and so on.
Do not get me wrong; every one of these new features seems to be upgraded, built on newer and more open foundations, and has improvements over the past versions. Many of the technologies have stretched a lot, and in much better directions; so I'm excited about all of them. They all looked like steps forward, and are usually built on totally new foundations; so they aren't just legacy ports. But they aren't entirely new ideas either.
               
MacOS X was a bit of a let down for me. It felt like what a NeXTy would design as a Mac, without fully understanding what the Mac was. I'd kept hoping that the NeXT people would listen to the Mac people more, and let more Mac influences in. Jaguar has a bit of that as well; and there does still seem to be a NeXT bias to the way things are done and thought of, but the good news is that in this OS they are listening to the Mac-ers as well.
Many of the important Mac technologies (conceptually) are getting back in there. And the evolution is bringing back things that Mac users (and most users) would like. In the past, there was also sort of an attitude towards Mac technologies of "what would you want/need THAT for". But now, there seems to be more listening and a pinch less hubris; this is a very good trend. Even Steve Jobs was up on stage and pointing out, "OK, we heard you". Some of the acceptance seems reluctant; but the messages are getting through. This is a very good thing.
     
Another very import thing is to look at history, it took Apple a few years to go from System 6 to System 7. It will have taken Apple only 18 months to go from OSX to Jaguar and gain the equivalent features back. This trend (time to market) bodes well for the future of OSX. I still feel that in many areas OSX and Aqua is behind MacOS; but there is no doubt that it is catching up. And in many other areas there is no doubt that it is ahead and pulling away. And at this trend, in another 18 months, they could have the remaining holes plugged, and we should have everything that Mac users are missing, on a whole new and better foundation. And a 3 year migration from one OS foundation to another is actually much faster than anyone else has been able to do it of late; it's been 10 years and Microsoft still doesn't have people moved over fully to NT based technology. So this pace is impressive.
Some were concerned that the keynote started with a funeral for OS 9, but the message of the Keynote, "OS 9 is dead" was exactly the message Apple needs to send to developers and development managers. Start looking towards the future; and the future is OSX. So it was the right marketing stunt for that audience.
We need to be careful that we don't extrapolate that to everywhere or every audience. We've had Photoshop for almost a month now, and Quark, FrameMaker and many other tools are not yet native; so it is not like publishing or many other industries are ready to move over yet. Some of these migrations take many months or years. K-12 (Education) is not ready to go, nor will they be soon, they are a slow moving market. Many home users will take years to migrate as well. So OS 9 is not dead in reality; but metaphorically, the trend will be towards OS X, and Jaguar should alleviate the pain of moving many more users over. So while the demise of OS 9 is slightly exaggerated, Jaguar fills in most of the final gaps, and is certainly the beginning of the end.
All in all, I came away from this WWDC far happier with the progress and attitudes in Apple (and from the development community) than I did from the last few before it. Things are full steam ahead for Jaguar, and the transition to OSX is coming along nicely.
 Format for Printing  Mail
|
|
|
|
