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Pete DeVries, Internet Tools Specialist February 1997 This month we turn the End User's Corner over to Pete DeVries, Net Scout's Internet Tools Specialist for his views on the state of Apple. He attended the Macworld conference and has worked with the Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh OS for many years, in support, development and training capacities. He is the author and maintainer of Net Scout's Scout Toolkit (http://scout.cs. wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/). [Jack Solock] Competition has been the driving force for the rapid advancement in Internet applications, and the future of Apple Computer will have a major impact on the future direction of the Internet. Will open standards, multiple vendors and competition still exist, or will the future of the Internet be controlled by one just one company? To understand these issues one needs to understand the current state of Apple and the role it plays in what many feel is a war of "everybody vs. Microsoft." Much has been written of the anticipated demise of Apple Computer Inc. (http://www.apple.com) This prediction began when IBM first shipped its first PC and has continued unabated for the last 16 years. Despite recent serious set backs, Apple had sales of $2.1 billion last quarter and has $1.8 billion in cash reserves. In 1996 Apple ranked 5th in US sales and 4th in world-wide sales for a total of over $9 billion dollars. Apple has made some serious mistakes and has significant challenges ahead; however, if you already like the Macintosh you should not fear buying a new Mac because of fears that the company may disappear. Even if Apple's more ambitious plans fail, you will still get improved versions of Mac OS (System 7) for several years. The decision of whether or not to buy a Mac should be based on specific needs and how important ease of use and other features are to you. Macs are still the easiest computers to use. They are still the computer of choice for most Web design firms, publishers and multimedia specialists. Until it was made public in InfoWorld, Microsoft's own Web site contained animated GIF files created using the Mac-only program GifBuilder. Although many feel the Mac Operating System (OS) is still arguably "better" than Windows95, it does have its weaknesses when compared to WindowsNT and UNIX. Those operating systems support the following advanced features: -pre-emptive multitasking (applications can truly multitask by sharing the processor) -memory protection (a crashed program can't crash the entire machine) -symmetric multiprocessing (the OS and unmodified applications can use multiple processors) These are important features, and Apple recognized it needed to add them to its operating system. Their own attempts to develop a new OS internally were running behind schedule so they decided to look outside the company for an OS that met their needs. This OS would serve as the foundation for a new industrial-strength Mac OS. This is not that unusual. Microsoft did not develop the original version of MS-DOS or several of its other programs; it bought them from other companies. Early reports suggested that Apple planned to go with the BeOS (http://www.be.com/), but some employees at Next (http://www.next.com/) thought their OS would make a better choice and called Ellen Hancock, Apple's Chief Technology Officer. This led to several meetings between Apple and Next which resulted in Apple's purchasing Next Inc. for $400 million. It also brought the return of Steve Jobs, one of the original founders of Apple, as a consultant. Jobs was also the founder of Next and the chairman and CEO of Pixar (http://www.pixar.com), the computer animation company that created the movie Toy Story. What's Next?Apple does not plan to abandon the owners of older Macs or those who still want to use System 7. It plans to continue to make enhancements to System 7 for the next several years. At the same time they are working on combining the Macintosh strengths in ease of use and multimedia with the fully object-oriented Next OS's strengths in pre-emptive multitasking, memory protection, symmetric multiprocessing, and rapid application development. This new OS is code named Rhapsody. Apple's dual OS strategy (http://macos.apple.com/macos/releases/rhapsody/osroadmap.html) is available on their Web site. In the Macworld '97 keynote session Jobs noted that the code that is both the most reliable and takes the least amount of time to create and debug is the code that the programmer doesn't have to write. The strengths behind Next's OS and its development environment are that they are completely object-oriented and produce reusable code quickly. Jobs went on to say that in the Next/Rhapsody environment, 80% of the code a programmer needs has already been written for him or her. This advantage allows two people working in a garage to develop a program every bit as feature-rich as a large company's 150-person programming team. This should allow Rhapsody developers to create new applications much more quickly and more cheaply than on competing platforms. I have seen the advantages of this toolbox approach in my own development efforts. When I worked the Integrated Microscopy Resource (http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/imr.html) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, we developed a 4-Dimensional microscope that allowed a user to view the behavior of cells at several focal planes through the specimen as well as over time. The final data sets were about 1GB, so we needed to use some form of compression. Rather than write our own compression routines we simply used those available from QuickTime. This allowed the team to concentrate on other parts of the project. When the PowerMacs shipped, our code worked automatically with the new PowerPC-native QuickTime. Our team's code did not have to be rewritten to take advantage of this much faster processor. The Next's development environment gives programmers even more tools and an object-oriented development environment that will allow developers to take better advantage of existing code as well as their own previously created code to develop new applications more quickly than other environments. Next has been very successful in the mission-critical enterprise market because their tools have allowed developers to create large robust complex programs in a very short time. If complex programs are made easier to develop, then more small innovative companies can compete. Currently the software market has become dominated by large software companies. It is almost impossible for a small company to develop mainstream applications anymore. The questions for many Mac users are: will this new OS work on my current hardware, and how soon will it be available? Apple has said that the new OS will run on all of its "currently shipping Macs." I assume this to mean PCI PowerMacs and currently shipping PowerBooks. Users of older Macs will still be able to run newer versions of System 7 and Mac applications, but not Rhapsody or Rhapsody applications. To keep this in perspective, some PCs sold in the last two years are not able to run the current version of WindowsNT. Developers' releases of Rhapsody will be available in the summer of 1997, so developers can get started on the next generation of applications. In early 1998 the "Rhapsody Premier" release will let early adopters get started with the new operating system and applications. Later that year the "Rhapsody Unified" release will be available which will allow regular Mac applications to run in a "compatibility box" process under the Rhapsody OS. This unified release of Rhapsody will allow you to run older applications (except for the few that make direct hardware calls) along with the new Rhapsody applications. If an older Mac application crashes, it will not affect the Rhapsody OS or the other Rhapsody applications. This compatibility box will be fully native as well as fast and have its features synchronized with the improved versions of System 7. If Apple is able to successfully develop Rhapsody by combining the Mac interface with the powerful features of a fully object-oriented operating system with pre-emptive multitasking, memory protection and symmetric multiprocessing, it will have a more advanced operating system than WindowsNT. For Microsoft to develop a fully object-oriented version of WindowsNT it would have to start from the ground up. Will Apple be able to ship Rhapsody on schedule? The Next OS, OpenStep, already runs on Intel and Sparc processors. They created but never shipped a version for the PowerPC. Porting OpenStep directly to the PowerPC should not be very difficult. Creating a new Mac-like interface for Rhapsody and porting over Mac technologies such as a full featured version of the QuickTime Media Layer will be more difficult. Apple has already created software called the Macintosh Application Environment for several versions of UNIX that allow UNIX users to run Mac applications, so creating the compatibility box may not be that difficult. MacWeek has an article (http://www. macweek.com/top_stories/nw_metrowerks.html) on a new tool being developed by Metrowerks (http://www.metrowerks.com) that will let developers quickly port their Macintosh applications to Rhapsody It is unclear if Apple will be able to meet the deadlines it has set for Rhapsody. Apple has, in some cases, orchestrated transitions such as this incredibly well. The transition of the Mac OS from the 68K line of processors to the PowerPC line of processors was very smooth. However, some of Apple's plans have not been completed on schedule. One reason for optimism is that Apple has acquired several hundred software engineers from Next who will help with the transition. The highly regarded top engineer from Next, Avie Tevanian, has been put in charge of the project. Apple as a platform alternativeJim Barksdale, the CEO of (Netscape (http://www.netscape.com/), told the audience at the MacWorld Expo that Netscape has worked and will continue to work closely with Apple and is a strong supporter of Apple. Netscape has and will continue to incorporate and support Apple and Apple technologies such as the QuickTime Media Layer (QTML), CyberDog, HotSauce, and Rhapsody in their product line. He also said that he is a Mac user and over the last ten years has purchased 10 Macs with his own money for himself and his family - including two Performas just this Christmas. He said that Netscape will ensure that Macs will be able to cooperate fully with their Communicator Suite (http://www.netscape.com/browsers/index.html) on corporate networks. Eric Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer of Sun Microsystems (http://www.sun.com/), told the audience, "We believe that the Mac is the ideal client for the front-end for the kinds of machines that we sell." Sun and Apple are working together to integrate QTML and OpenDoc into Java. He also stated that Apple is a supporter of the "pure Java" initiative whose goal is to keep Java an open cross-platform standard. (This initiative is to counter Microsoft's plans to incorporate Windows-only features into Java.) Dr. Schmidt stated, "Apple gets it about the Net...The network future is too big for any single company or individual to dominate. That is what choices are about." He commended Dr. Amelio for acquiring Next: "In 1993, Sun licensed NextStep, [but] we did not have the foresight to buy the company!" In closing he said, "On behalf of Sun, and I think the entire industry, I would like to congratulate Gil for the foresightedness to bring to all of us the very best operating system technology in the world." These are strong endorsements from individuals who realize how important Apple is to the success of their own companies. There is a chance that an alternative "Network Computer" (NC) environment might develop in which inexpensive NCs running Java applications break the Wintel dominance, but that will probably not be a viable option for another year or two. In the meantime, these vendors need a desktop alternative to Wintel and at this time the only one is Apple. In January I went to MacWorld in San Francisco to learn more about Internet tools, Apple's future plans and gauge the vitality of the Apple community. There were a record 80,000 attendees. Eager Mac users wanted to see the latest hardware and software as well as learn what to expect from Apple's recent acquisition of Next. Despite Apple's 3Q '97 loss of $120 million, the vendors and attendees I talked with were excited and optimistic about Apple's future. Most felt that the company would survive recent setbacks. Many were encouraged by the number of Mac clone makers including Power Computing (http://www.powercc.com/), Motorola (http://www.mot.com/GSS/MCG/products/systems/ds/starmax/SMfamily. htm), and Umax (http://www.supermac.com/). Although it is not yet shipping, a Mac-compatible PowerPC system (http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/ppc/) was demonstrated at the IBM booth. The first day of the conference was dominated by the nearly three-hour keynote. With only 4,000 seats and an enthusiastic crowd, you had to queue up early to get a seat. After a humorous introduction featuring scenes from the movie "Independence Day" and references to oppressive dark forces bent on global domination, actor Jeff Goldblum introduced Apple's CEO Dr. Gil Amelio. Amelio told the audience that Apple was taking its current problems very seriously and was working on improving its operating system, hardware products and ability to forecast demand. He noted that the $120 million loss was largely due to Apple's over-projection of demand for its lower-priced Performa line and under-projection of demand and delivery of PowerBooks and high-end PowerMacs. A speaker from Corel demonstrated Corel Office for Java (http://officeforjava.corel.com/) running within the Mac Java virtual machine. This suite includes integrated word processor, spreadsheet, and charting modules. Since the suite's applications are written in Java they will run unmodified on any computer that has a Java virtual machine, including Windows, UNIX, and Mac. Kim Polese, from Marimba (http://www.marimba.com/), demonstrated Castanet. She explained that, "Castanet is a complete system for the automatic delivery and updating of software, applications, and content across the Net." The system allows users to tune into channels that deliver items automatically to their machines in the background. This technology eliminates the need to install or update software. Castanet is available for several operating systems. Apple will be bundling the Marimba tuner with the Mac OS and the Mac OS runtime for Java. Frank Casanova from Apple Research lab followed with demonstrations of new technologies that Apple has developed. Here is a brief summary of the technologies demonstrated: HotSauce (http://product.info.apple.com/productinfo/factsheets/mcffactsheet.html) - A Meta Content Framework (MCF) technology that allows you to view local and online information in a number of different formats. HotSauce allows you to fly through the content of a Web site as well as reorganize disparate chunks of information on the Net or on your hard drive in a way that makes sense to you. V-Twin (http://www.research.apple.com/research/tech/V-Twin/default.html) - This technology allows you to find information easily. Frank demonstrated how complex mathematical models allow it to summarize long messages into a few main points. Vastly improved speech software allows your email and other documents to be read to you. Bullet points, URLs and other constructs that used to sound funny on the current speech manager are now easily understandable. Apple Data Detectors (http://www.research.apple.com/research/tech/AppleDataDetectors/Default.html) - This technology recognizes email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, etc., within text documents and knows how to deal with them. Click on an email address in your word processor and it launches your email program, filling in the "To:" section. The individual applications don't need to be programmed to understand these data types; they are understood and recognized by the operating system. QuickTime Media Layer (http://quicktime.apple. com/qtml/qtml.html) - Apple is committed to making its technologies cross-platform. At the meeting they announced QuickTime 2.5 for Windows which allows Windows users to create as well as play QuickTime movies. Another Apple Engineer demonstrated QuickTimeVR 2.0 (http://quicktimevr.apple.com/) , which pulls together QuickTimeVR, QuickTime and QuickDraw3D. In these virtual worlds you not only move around, but can encounter and interact with other objects -- in this case, a rotating cube with each side of the cube playing a different QuickTime movie. Steve Jobs then appeared and received a standing ovation. He explained how the Next/Rhapsody operating system and developer tools would allow developers to create applications in a fraction of the time it would take traditionally. Conference attendees responded enthusiastically, marking the success of the Macworld conference. After Job's presentation a representative from the PowerPC chip licensee Exponential Technologies (http://www.exp.com/) compared the Photoshop performance of a Mac with a 450 MHz Exponential PowerPC chip, to that of a 200MHz Pentium Pro. The PowerPC chip was much much faster. Exponential plans to have 533MHz chips available in volume by late summer. Later I saw several machines running with 450MHz Exponential chips at various booths on the show floor. For more information on the Exponential processor, check out the article from Byte magazine at URL: http://www.byte.com/art/9612/sec10/art1.htm.
Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the End User's Corner provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712140. The Government has certain rights in this material. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison or the National Science Foundation.
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