Apple clears up Intel Rhapsody confusion

With Apple's sharp OS turnaround last week, there's been a lot ofconfusion over the fate of Apple's Intel plans. In the original plans forRhapsody, Apple's next generation server operating system, Apple was goingto create a version of the OS that ran on Intel PCs, though it would notinclude the ability to run Mac OS-based applications. Last week at itsyearly developer event, Apple revealed that Rhapsody features would beintegrated into the Mac OS, rather than the other way around. That makessense for Mac customers, but opens some questions up about the future ofRhapsody, and the previously planned Intel version of Rhapsody.

Jordan J. Dea-Mattson, the senior partnership and technology solutionsmanager for Apple Developer Relations explained Apple's OS plans to anApple developer mailing list this week. He said that the next major versionof the Mac OS--Mac OS X (as in "ten")--would be similar to Apple's originalplans for Rhapsody. Like Rhapsody, Mac OS X will be based on the Machkernel, and will include subsystems for Mac OS compatibility, Rhapsodycompatibility, as well as a new set of APIs dubbed "Carbon" that will carrythe line in the future. Mac OS X will also include a "killer" Javasubsystem that the company says Microsoft will use as well.

With all this Rhapsody technology being folded into the Mac OS, you mightthink that Rhapsody itself--the server OS based on NeXT technology--wasbeing cancelled. But Apple maintains that PowerPC and Intel-based versionsof Rhapsody will be released late this year. Apple's plans are similar toMicrosoft's Windows 9x/Windows NT line-up: Windows 95 and 98 are compatiblewith more of the older software, but include some of the advancedtechnology from NT. Windows NT is still positioned as a server andhigh-end workstation solution, much like Rhapsody. Apple says that it stillhas no plans to offer Mac OS compatibility on Intel, however, and itslikely that Apple's Intel offerings will lag behind its PowerPC versionsfor the foreseeable future