Putting The Cart Before The Horse: Apple's 'Innovations' May Make For A Bumpy Ride
 John Cordiano | Graphics Manager
As of January 2003, Apple Computer, Inc. will no
longer make machines that boot into the Mac OS 9 environment. Their new
machines will boot solely to OS X without disabling the Classic 9
environment. This could cause problems for many newspaper publishers across
the nation.
At a conference in San Jose, Calif., Steve Jobs (Apple’s CEO) enacted a
eulogy while addressing a group of software and hardware developers stating
that Mac OS 9 “isn’t dead for our customers yet, but it’s dead to you.”
Apple hopes this decision will motivate software and hardware developers to
take the next step into the Linux-based OS X. However, this could cause
problems for newspaper publishers, as most publishing houses fully depend on
the Mac OS 9 environment. While applications such as Microsoft Office and
Adobe Photoshop have been updated to support OS X, Quark Xpress, a must in the
publishing realm, is still lagging behind. Sadly, running it in the Classic
environment is problematic. This could prove to be an uncomfortable situation
for both Macintosh and the publishers.
Many publishers will not upgrade to Mac OS X until all necessary production
applications are updated as well. If these applications are not updated, and
Apple discontinues computers that boot into the OS 9 environment, then Apple
may take a hit financially when publishers don’t buy new computers this coming
year.
Apple depends on many of these publishers for their business because most
publishing houses upgrade their computers annually, rotating anywhere from one-
quarter to one-third of their computers out the door to make room for the new
models. This keeps the companies ahead of the technology curve and allows
them to continually be compatible with all of their clients’ needs. Even if
Quark comes out with a Carbonized OS X version of Xpress, publishers will
still have to wait for the rest of the extensions and publishing related
software to follow suit before they can invest.
It looks like it could take up to a full year for the rest of the world to
catch up with Apple’s innovations. On that note, what good are innovations if
we don’t have the means to utilize them?
Name: Bob Cook
Year: IT Director
Major: Merck-Medco
Comments:
About your statement that "Many publishers will not upgrade to Mac OS X until all necessary production applications are tested.", Any IT professional that would upgrade an OS before testing all his applications will not have a job for very long. Overall, discontinuing OS9 doesn't sound like a very wise business decision by Apple. Only Microsoft can get away with that type of strategy.
Name: m
Comments:
if you want pop up stopper ill send you one that works real well
Name: Mr. Cooper
Year: 5th grade teacher
Major: Anatomy
Comments:
I think little John Cordioano is a bit "Quarky" himself. At least since halfway through his 5th grade year. I don't know what got IN to him.
John, I wish you had mentioned the lagging of the Scanner-making industry to catch up with OS X too. I scan lots of different things and it takes a long time in OS 9. But John maybe you could help me?
Name: Amanda
Comments:
So what's everyone's favorite?
Name: Amanda
Comments:
So what's everyone's favorite?
Name: Kevin
Major: Mgmt
Comments:
Steve Jobs has had luck so far "killing" things before everyone expected the death... let's hope and pray this one doesn't backfire!
Name: Kevin
Major: General
Comments:
Weird stuff keeps coming in! Yaaayyy :)
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