Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Why Apple compare Apache on OS X with IIS on NT

Author:Chuck Shotton
Posted:3/19/1999; 4:55:24 PM
Topic:Why Apple compare Apache on OS X with IIS on NT
Msg #:4317 (In response to 4307)
Prev/Next:4315 / 4318

OS X Server isn't an unproven platform. BSD is proven, OpenStep OS was proven, Yellow Box and the OpenStep APIs are proven.

I guess I just missed the years and years it has spent in the market place, garnering a large number of users, commercial quality tools, and a market for more than a few million dollars worth of custom software.

OS X Server is a totally immature product in the market, regardless of how long in the tooth its respective constituent components are. The simple fact is that Apple has NEVER been able to make a commercial success out of a Unix-based platform. Not with A/UX. Not with AIX. And NeXT didn't do it with OS X Server's progenitor either.

What specifically has changed in Apple's marketing strategy, its relationship with its developers, or its customer base that is going to make it different this time? What case can Apple make to developers who are hanging on by the skin of their teeth in the Mac market anyway that they should sink large amounts of cash into developing software for an O/S whose installations number in the mere hundreds right now?

If the average software house spent just $50,000 to rehost an application (a mere 6 man-months -- highly unlikely), they'd have to sell a copy of their $100 app to every single installation of Mac OS X Server that is out there on the Internet right now to even come close to breaking even on the DEVELOPMENT costs. And that doesn't begin to cover the cost of hard goods, production, tech support, maintenance, etc. going forward.

It might be fun to play with a new O/S, and it might be the greatest thing since sliced bread in terms of technology. But if the market isn't there to fund the development, what incentive to commercial developers have to write one line of code for it? Sure, all sorts of free, GNU-like stuff will crop up. And we'll see the usual crop of stuff trickle over the fence from academia or the NextStep developers that were already out there. But I really doubt that the managers at most Mac software houses will do the calculus and come up with an answer that says it's a great business opportunity.

Call me a skeptic. I'd love to be wrong. But I think history has shown otherwise and we're just seeing round 3 of Apple's ongoing saga of trying to play in the enterprise space without really understanding it.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:48:55 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.