MacWorld: Microsoft supports the Mac in a big way

Sorry folks, but today the news is all Mac. Set in the backdrop of a year of massive losses, Apple opened MacWorld today with keynote speeches by Gil Armelio and, later, Apple veteran Guy Kawasaki. Earlier this week, Chief technology officer Ellen Hancock announced that Apple will offertheir "NeXT" operating system--code-named Rhapsody--in two versions todevelopers, "Yellow" and "Blue" sometime in the next six months, withgeneral release in a year. Most importantly, Rhapsody will, in fact, allow users to run legacy Mac apps in a window, similar to the way Mac users emulate Windows now with add-in cards and emulation software. This announcement drew a sigh of relief from the Mac faithful, though the first release of the OS won't run legacy apps--this featurewill be added in 12-18 months.The "Yellow" project contains the primary Rhapsody components that arebased on NeXT Software's excellent OpenStep OS technologies. The "Blue"portion is a "box" that runs legacy System 7.x applications. If a System7 app crashes, Rhapsody will continue running unaffected. This sounds tome like Windows 3.1 applications running in Windows NT, or the way thatthese apps are supposed to--but don't--run in Windows 95.Steve Jobs was greeted to thunderous applause and announced that thenew OS will be a mix of Unix with a Mach kernel. Additionally, the newOS will be able to run on Intel Corp. processors. Also on stage wasSteve Wozniak, strangely silent in all the hoopla.Apple and other companies, notably Microsoft, will make many announce-ments this week. Apple, for example, will integrate Marimba's Castanetprogram into the next release of the Mac OS, as Microsoft will withInternet Explorer 4.0 and Windows 97. More amazing, however is the announcement that Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 will be bundled with*every* Macintosh that Apple sells. Yes, you read that right: IE 3.0bundled with the Mac. Also, Microsoft Office for the Macintosh willbe bundled with Mac systems for the first time. Microsoft, for their part, has announced a new Macintosh division that will create native Mac versions of Office 97, Front Page 97, Comic Chat, a Personal Web Server, and more. They will also port ActiveX to the Mac so that ActiveX controls can run in the new Mac OS environment.Beta 1 of Front Page 1.0 for the Mac is available for downloadtoday from the Microsoft Web site. Microsoft will post the finalversion of IE 3 for the Mac next week. Attendies received thesoftware on CD.Netscape announced today that the first beta of Communicator 4.0 would be available to Mac users within "30 days" and that they willsupport Apple's forthcoming Rhapsody OS