Rhapsody preview will only run on Intel PCs

Apple will give away what they call "a prelude to Rhapsody" this month atthe Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The bundle, which will begiven out to attendees (who pay big bucks to attend), includes single-user,developer-only versions of OpenStep 4.2 for Mach Preview Release 2, OpenStep Developer 4.2 for Mach Preview Release 2, OpenStep Enterprise 4.2for Windows NT and Windows 95 Pre-release, WebObjects Developer 3.1, andan OpenStep tutorial. Apple says the bundle is designed to get developersexperienced with OpenStep APIs. Mac developers had better scrounge up apowerful PC, too: the software runs only on high-end Intel personal computers, not on the Macintosh.

Normally, NeXT would charge over $10,000 for this set of tools. I havecomplained about this policy to Apple several times, actually, and so haveothers, apparently: "Apple has realized the NeXT pricing model doesn't workfor their developers and is beginning to do something about it," said Alan Oppenheimer, president of Open Door Networks Inc.

Apple also announced that it will deliver its first developer release ofRhapsody later this year. It will demonstrate an early alpha version ofRhapsody and MacOS 8 at the WWDC. Gil Amelio, Steve Jobs, Avie Tevanianand other Apple luminaries will speak at the developer event