Apple Computer Inc, which now favors an NT-style roll-out for its next generation Rhapsody operating system, has shipped an early version to more than 10,000 software developers worldwide, the company said yesterday. The Rhapsody Developer Release is intended to give developers a chance to start creating applications to run on the new system. It comes with 14 sample programs written by developers who were seeded with an even earlier version. Apple now says it expects Rhapsody to complement MacOS, which will remain Apple’s volume operating system, while Rhapsody will initially be aimed at server and high-end desktop applications – just like NT (CI No 3,261). First customer releases are planned for some time in 1998. The early release will run on Power Macintosh 8500, 8600, 9500 and 9600 models, but eventually the code will run on all Macintosh systems shipped from early 1997, says Apple. The next releases will be of Rhapsody for PC-compatibles and the Yellow Box application development component derived from NextStep for Windows. Apple says it’s remarkable that it’s been able to ship a developers version only seven months after the Apple and NeXT software teams were first integrated.
