RE: The death of Rhapsody

CobraBoy (tbyars@earthlink.net)
Sun, 7 Jun 1998 15:44:02 -0700


--============_-1314863040==_ma============
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 3:20 PM -0700 6/7/98, Jim Whitehead came up with this:

> So, in the end, Rhapsody is three things: a) a brilliant publicity move, b)
> a successful mechanism to get Steve Jobs re-engaged with Apple, and c) the
> death blow to NeXT. However, lovers of BeOS and Linux beware, the network
> effects exerted by MacOS overcame the technical superiority of Rhapsody.

Well Rhapsody is pretty brilliant. See this is what actually happened.

Steve set out some people to do some focus groups.

Most Mac users were terrified of NeXTStep/OpenStep. "Where is the menu bar?
Why do the menu's tear off? You need a mouse with *two* buttons? I can't
remember what application I'm working in..." and on and on. So Steve being
the bright guy that he is did the following.

The Finder on a Mac is an application. So is something called Blue Box
which runs the MacOS under OpenStep. So Steve has OpenStep launch blue box
just like the Mac System launches the Finder. Then with a little clean up
of some of the headers in most apps they run just fine. (Actually most apps
come in around 85 -90% "Carbon" clean)

But, you say, what about all the die hard loyalists that want the look and
feel of OpenStep? Well Stevereno did something about that also. Called the
appearance manager it allows you to totally change every aspect of the
interface. Simular to what Kaleidescope the third party utility does on the
MacOs now. (And of which our very own Elwood is a major fart in the wind.)
So you can believe there will be a "Classic NeXTStep" look to show up.

But, but, you say, what about my copy of Tiffany that I can't live without?
Or Stone 3d? What about Apatchee? What about SendMail? Well do not fear
grasshopper, they still run just fine under Mac OS-X because Mac OS-X is
OpenStep with the aforementioned blue box loading.

Wow! that Steve guy is pretty smart. So now Mac OS-X is totally buzzword
compliant?

Yep.

Tim

--

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. ...Steve Jobs

<> tbyars@earthlink.net <>

--============_-1314863040==_ma============ Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

At 3:20 PM -0700 6/7/98, Jim Whitehead came up with this:

> So, in the end, Rhapsody is three things: a) a brilliant publicity move, b)

> a successful mechanism to get Steve Jobs re-engaged with Apple, and c) the

> death blow to NeXT. However, lovers of BeOS and Linux beware, the network

> effects exerted by MacOS overcame the technical superiority of Rhapsody.

Well Rhapsody is pretty brilliant. See this is what actually happened.

Steve set out some people to do some focus groups.

Most Mac users were terrified of NeXTStep/OpenStep. <color><param>0000,00D7,0000</param>"Where is the menu bar? Why do the menu's tear off? You need a mouse with *two* buttons? I can't remember what application I'm working in..." and on and on. So Steve being the bright guy that he is did the following.

</color>The Finder on a Mac is an application. So is something called Blue Box which runs the MacOS under OpenStep. So Steve has OpenStep launch blue box just like the Mac System launches the Finder. Then with a little clean up of some of the headers in most apps they run just fine. (Actually most apps come in around 85 -90% "Carbon" clean)

But, you say, what about all the die hard loyalists that want the look and feel of OpenStep? Well Stevereno did something about that also. Called the appearance manager it allows you to totally change every aspect of the interface. Simular to what Kaleidescope the third party utility does on the MacOs now. (And of which our very own Elwood is a major fart in the wind.) So you can believe there will be a "Classic NeXTStep" look to show up.

But, but, you say, what about my copy of Tiffany that I can't live without? Or Stone 3d? What about Apatchee? What about SendMail? Well do not fear grasshopper, they still run just fine under Mac OS-X because Mac OS-X is OpenStep with the aforementioned blue box loading.

Wow! that Steve guy is pretty smart. So now Mac OS-X is totally buzzword compliant?

Yep.

Tim

--

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how

they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really

do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a

while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had

and synthesize new things. ...Steve Jobs

<<> tbyars@earthlink.net <<>

--============_-1314863040==_ma============--