Rhapsody to appear this Fall as Mac OS Server

Rhapsody fans haven't had a lot of good news lately: First, Apple abandonedplans to make Rhapsody its next-generation OS, announcing that there wouldbe no versions of Rhapsody after version 1.0 (this includes the Intelversion): Instead, the company decided to roll some Rhapsody features intothe Mac OS and release it as Mac OS X next year. Now, with the MacWorld Expo in New York, a new round of Rhapsody news brings more changes for theoperating system that never was.

Rhapsody 1.0 will still be released this Fall as planned, but it will becalled Mac OS X Server (that's "X" as in "ten" by the way, not "ex"). SinceApple gave no word about platforms or timelines, we can assume the knownplan is still in place: Mac OS X Server will run on Intel and PowerPC systems, but it will be the last of the line. Meanwhile, Apple will releasenew upgrades to the Mac OS (including version 8.5 this Fall) and thenrelease a full Mac OS X ten release--on PowerPC only--next year. The onlyway Intel users will be able to use Rhapsody technology will be throughthe confusingly-named "Yellow Box" add-on for Windows NT, which adds Rhapsody APIs to Microsoft's server operating system.

I've heard rumors that Apple is dropping its enterprise plans--that is,Rhapsody--primarily to please Microsoft, which gave that as a condition toits continued allegiance with Apple. This way, Microsoft can pursue theenterprise crowd without having to worry about Apple and Apple can rely onfrequent updates to Microsoft's Mac software