Dave did a good job of addressing these points. I only have a few things to add.
> 1) Is it do-able to substitute the BeOS for the underlying
> Mach? If so, would this provide a significant performance
> benefit on a PowerPC platform?
I don't think this would be a direction that they'd go. I believe that a port of the Mach OS to PowerPC was mostly finished at one point but never shipped. In light of this, if the goal is to get the NeXT environment running on PowerPC, it would probably be much easier to finish the port of Mach to PowerPC and port the environment to that rather than bring in another OS (i.e. BeOS).
> Conversely, given NeXT's non-PPC origins, does APPL now
> have the basis for an OS to run on Pentium machines.
The NeXT environment currently runs on Pentium machines -- Mach and the upper level environment has already been ported. So theoretically if the Apple environment is somehow merged with NeXT's, this new environment should be able to run on Pentium machines.
> What, if anything, might such an OS have to offer over NT?
Better and more consistent UI, more robust development tools, the ability to produce more sophisticated applications quicker, and possible portability to other platforms. Theoretically an app written in this new environment for Pentium could be easily ported to this environment running on PowerPC.
> 3) Given that AAPL had NT on its OS short list, can you
> enlighten on their *not* going the "safe" route? Ditto
> Java/SUNW.
I'm not sure if dealing with Microsoft is safe :-). I think one reason for this deal is to compete with Microsoft, not be consumed by them. Both Apple and NeXT have fairly strong anti-MSFT sentiments. I personally think the current NeXT and Apple environments are far superior to Microsoft's and hope that this merger produces a strong competitor.
Regarding Java, the NeXT OS is "Java enabled" and should provide Apple strong inroads to that market. While it isn't exactly clear what the compatibility with Java will be, I know that NeXT has been working on this for quite a while and recognizes Java as a large future market. This will surely factor into the new Apple/NeXT environment.
> 4) To put the question broadly, what is the potential of
> NeXT? Where can it take AAPL?
That question is a little out of my range :-). Technically, this merger can create a very cool technology and a strong competitor for MSFT. Marketwise this can turn out to be a very good move for both companies. But there are still too many unanswered questions.
Randy |
