December 13, 1997
I! THEBOSTONGLOBE • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1997 I i customers. Not surprisW.gly, this directory called the System Fold 1 has caused confusion. er. Underneath its Mac-like Waxing not-quite-rhapsodic If NextStep was everything visage, Rhapsody is really Eerke StE",e Jobs said it was, some peo ley 4.4 Unix, a complicated of computer: Apple's Mac as runs ple are asking, why isn't Apple operating system with nearly a New operating system has Mac look, only on Macintosh computers, and abandoning Mac OS? The reason dozen directories with namEs such Microsoft:. Wmdows 95 operating is simple: Apple makes money as (cores, /dev, and /lib. but Next feel I Simson L. Garfinkel system only runs on PC-compati selling Mac OS products. Al Like Microsoft Wmdows, ble machines. Some operating though Rhapsody is great Rhapsody has a command-line in teclnology, it is not ready for th" systems, such as WiIldows NT, terface at its heart. The system is average user. To get Rhapsody can be "po!'ted" from one kind of controUed by countless configura eomputer to another. ready, Apple needs to generate Rhapsody Rhapsody cash to fund development. tion files. And even though there In 198ii, Steve Jobs was are simple-to-use graphical pro The compmy plans to release thrown out of Apple Computer, the tv.-ovel'Sions of Rhapsody in 1998. grams for administrating the company he cofounded, and be system, occasinnally you have to set up shop in Palo Alto at a com The Premiere Release shonld be shipped early in the year, Apple get in there with • text editor and pany be m:schievousJy called Next just "fix ft." - as in "the neA1; big thing." In says, and will be designed for soft. One positive difference for 1988 his =pany premiered the ware develoPErs and I8rge App"'" F_reOS ...... corporations that want to evaluate Rhapsody is stability. While my NeXT ..... ~ppIe "!extCube. a beautiful black com 'IOeImoJop.. puter that ran a magical, easv-to the technology. Then, probably in Mac crashes all the time, I was unable to crash Rhapsody, UBe, and easy-to-program, • September or October, the com operating syst"m called NextStep. pany will ship the Rhapsody The best thing about this new }Iany people who used NextStep Unified Releaoe. The Unified op operating system is it gives devel 'ell in love with it, but the comput erating system will have all of the opers all the power of NextStep. ers bombed because it was too NertStep/OpenStep features as Sitting down at a Rhapsody ma slow and expensive. wet as Mac OS appliCiloons. chine, two programmers ran turn In 1993 Ne.,1; focused on soft. I've had a chance to put the out a major application in just ware, porting its operating system Rhapsody version through its three to six months. Apple i; to PC. and Sun Mierosystems and paces. Remember, this version is banking that Rhapsody's ease of Hewiett-Packard workstations, for developers, not consumers. development will help program Then, in a surprise move, Sun It is a curious mix oftecbnol mers create thousands of new bought an equity stake in Next ogies. The system has the look of applications, which should ulti a Macintosh running Mac 8 - The two said they wonld develop a as mately attract new customers to new verskn of the Next software tha; is, the menus and "indows the platfonn. look like those on the Mac. But used to de,e1op appbcations, But delivering a superim' plat called OpenStep, for both Sun's Rhapsody doesn't work like the fonn ftfI' developing applications is Solaris operating system and Win MIC; it works like N",,1;. AST MONTH APPLE promise} this ~'developers' release" only half of what Apple has to do. dows NT. For example, if you are look Computer marle good also shows just Inw much work lt also needs to simplify Rbapsody 1 But Swlost interest over the ingat a folder on a Mgcand you on its promi,*, and remains to be done before the op - make it attractive to the same next two years as its Java lan want the files to be sorted by date shipped the first re erating system is ready for prime guage gained in popularity. instead of nane, you simply click sort of people who eI\ioy using lease of its r,ext time. their Macs. Apple could start by : L And that's where things stood on the words "Last MOOified." Bul generation Rhapsody operating First, some terminology and making Rhapsody more Mac-like: until the end of 1996, when Jobs wib Rhapsody, the maneuver system fur Apple P"werPC com history. sold Next to the folks at Apple. takes an extra mouse click. Besides the Macintosh look, it puters. An operating system is ;oft needs the feel. Apple is now embarking on an Another big difference be Mac Rhapsody is the firs: tangible ware that contro"' a computer's ambitious strategy of developing a tween Mac as and Rha))Sodv is hardware and the way it interscts fruit of Apple's $400 minion acqui Next-deri;ed operating system, the layout of th" files o~ the 'hard Teckrwlogy 7JJrWer Simson L. Gar with the user. Some operating sition of Next Software earlier . Rhapsody, wblIe continuing to drile. With Mac OS, all the sys finkel <00 be TOOJ:hed at plugged this year. Although it holds a lot of systems are tied to a specific kind tem files are hidden in a special evolve Mac as to satisfy current in@/fi'r"""",net.