Tim O’Reilly spoke at Apple’s WWDC about OS X being “The Next Big Thing” (also covered on Slashdot). Aside from rescuing my drowning Apple stock, I’m not concerned whether OS X is the “next big thing”, rather, that it’s my thing.
Since OS X came out, I have seen some changes that could be perceived as fodder for this argument. For instance:
- Apple now has it’s own section [slashdot.org] on Slashdot
- There seems to be a little less Apple FUD spinning around the web
- There are more OS X specific information sites like O’Reilly’s
- There are a ton of new OS X books
The reasons for these changes are, to be sure, numurous and loaded with opinion much my own reasons: No more switching back and forth from Mac to Linux just to get a “full featured” desktop machine. Open a Word doc, make a movie, use your firewire and USB peripherals, surf with IE if you want, jump on the command line, drag and drop, run Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, Bash, Grep, etc…. All this and I get hardware that was designed as if someone had read my mind (iBook).
Actually becoming the “next big thing” would be great for Apple and it’s users but seeing how I’ve been waiting for years for the next Beatles or the next Michael Jordan, I’m not holding my breath.
Here’s some of the new features that will be included in the next version of Mac OS X (codename: Jaguar). Lot’s of fun for the whole family!
- Quartz(TM) Extreme, the hardware accelerated Quartz graphics and
compositing engine
- iChat – Apple’s new AIM-compatible instant messaging software that is
built into Mac OS X and integrated with the new Mail and Address Book
applications
- QuickTime(R) 6, the first complete solution for industry standard MPEG-
4 video and AAC audio streaming
- Rendezvous, Apple’s proposed new industry standard for automatic
discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks (i.e.,
Ethernet, AirPort(R))
- Address Book, Apple’s new system-wide database for managing contact
information
- Finder(TM), now enhanced with spring-loaded folders and new instant
searching
- Sherlock(R) 3, Apple’s all-new Internet search and services tool
- Quartz(TM) Extreme, the hardware accelerated Quartz graphics and
compositing engine
- UNIX Tools, the latest UNIX advancements including FreeBSD 4.4 updates,
the new GCC 3 compiler, IPv6 and IPSec
- Windows Support, for increased compatibility with Windows networks with
SMB browsing and sharing as well as built-in PPTP VPN security
Apple announced today at it’s World Wide Developer Conference that it will be dropping OS 9 development. This means new apps will only be developed on OS X. For me, this is good news seeing as I haven’t booted into 9, of my own free will, since I can remember.
Besides the death of OS 9, there were a lot of interesting anouncements at WWDC. Read about them all here.
OS 9 was bloated to the point of failure after years of market-driven “we gotta update something” issues. But it’s not nice to speak poorly of the dead… So to OS 9, thanks for the good times. May you rest in peace.
