main page   Information briefs • macos x server • macos x (client) • darwin • netboot   Installation reports • PHP 3 • PHP 4 (Zend) • MySQL • Python (coming soon)   Special Reports • Apple Media Event 10/99 new iMacs and MacOS 9 • 1999 wwdc keynote • Quick and Dirty MacOS X Server Installaion Guide   Articles   News Archive • 1999 • 1998 • RhapNet (coming soon)   Advertising info   Contact Us   About Us   Links   The Tweak List			March on, brave soldiers!!!! by: Mark J. Hershenson (markhers@macnn.com)   If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait a little longer! - Ace Ventura Today is March 1st, 1999. Had it not been for a Steve Jobs promise a couple of months ago, today would probably be as innocuous a day as any other. Instead, today is this week's fuel for the specious topic: "Why Apple Computer cannot be trusted" What many people will look at and refer to as a dark day for the MacOS X platform is a day littered not with deception but with questions. Where is MacOS X Server? When will MacOS X Server be released? Why won't Apple tell us what the delay is about? And if they're rolling it out for Seybold, why won't they tell us?!? We all watched in anticipation as the iCEO rolled out the software at MacWorld San Francisco, and noted that MacOS X Server would be released in February. This operating system is now either 18 months, a couple of months, or hours late, depending on your interpretation of events. And, most importantly we don't have YellowBox or an Apple-branded WebObjects development platform. The official word from Apple on the delay is, thus far, no word at all. And while you might loathe it, silence makes perfect sense for Apple. Apple Computer, Inc. has made numerous public statements about MacOS X Server. Every new statement made by Apple will undoubtedly be documented by someone and shared with others. Every public statement made by an Apple employee in an official capacity about MacOS X Server is a sort of promise that Apple itself makes to its customer base. However, before you get all medieval on Apple Computer with your bad psuedo-lawyer self, carefully consider Apple's written public statements regarding MacOS X Server. From http://www.apple.com/macosx/ From Apple's January 5th press release regarding MacOS X Server From the MacOS X Server Technical Fact Sheet available here expect v - to look forward to; regard as likely to happen; anticipate the occurance or the coming of [Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989] This is the sort of hair splitting that pays Apple Legal's bills. Apple didn't say "will." They didn't say "without a doubt." They said "expect." A great number of people, myself included, believed in January that Apple genuinely expected to be ready for launch by the end of February. Unfortunately, after what you can be sure were numerous intense meetings, Apple decided that MacOS X Server is not yet ready for public consumption. Sad, but true. We don't have to like that MacOS X Server hasn't been released yet, but we must be understanding. We must all understand that this is an operating system with some very complex features that aren't apparently ready for prime time. A MacOS X Server 1.0 w/ many bugs and wo/ a QuickTime Streaming Server isn't what Apple advertised. And that is something they can be held accountable for not delivering - not only to customers, but to the media at large which may or may not be waiting to pounce on them following the software's initial release. As I remarked to someone just yesterday, if there's one thing that has defined anyone and everyone associated with MacOS X Server, it's waiting. It isn't very fulfilling, and it isn't productive, but it's all we got.

 

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