It’s not surprising that Apple Computer Inc is being bombarded with questions about when or if the Mac OS operating system and applications will be available on Intel-powered PCs, given that its recently-acquired Next Software Inc technologies are being ported from Intel Corp processors to run on PowerPC-based Macintoshes. The answer, according to VP technology Ellen Hancock, is that they won’t, because we don’t know how to port our PowerPC applications to Intel. Apple’s mid-1998 Rhapsody operating system combines Next’s Mach-based microkernel and OpenStep (Yellow Box) environment with Macintosh. And while Mach and OpenStep already run on Intel and Windows NT, Hancock says the company simply doesn’t know how to run the full environment, including the so-called Blue Box environment which provides compatibility for Mac OS applications on Rhapsody, on Intel processors while maintaining performance. Only if there are technology advances which allow greater compatibility between RISC architectures such as PowerPC and CISC instruction sets, like Intel iAPX-8, does Hancock see Mac OS and applications becoming available on PCs. However, Apple will continue to develop the operating system independent OpenStep as Yellow Box for Intel platforms running under the Mac GUI, though it’s not clear whether it will also run under Windows NT with the NT GUI that it currently requires. There’s also talk of an Intel-based Red Box – all of Rhapsody minus the Blue Box ported back to Intel – supporting Windows applications (which some have already suggested might be more appropriately named Green Box for its association with Billionaire Bill and the Pacific North West forests). For all that, Hancock says Apple’s ultimate aim is to be cross-platform and cross-operating system. If all of this sounds like the kind of noise a PowerPC company that wants to become an Intel company would make, watch my lips, says Hancock: we love PowerPC. Never mind Intel though, Apple’s got enough concerns trying too keep its Mac OS brand of operating system alive on PowerPC. Hancock says that after re-assessing the way it was conducting Mac OS license negotiations with the compatible builders – and provoking the ire of IBM Corp in the process by trying to hike prices by up to a reported 100% (CI No 3,137) – it has now re-focused on establishing terms which will lead to an increased share for the [Mac] brand… and provide a win-win situation for all parties.
