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

Re: New Macs & Frontier Performance

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:1/6/1999; 11:47:44 AM
Topic:How Frontier Changed My Life
Msg #:1859 (In response to 1858)
Prev/Next:1858 / 1860

Supporting the Mac OS is a no-brainer as long as our customers are using it. We're already there. There has been breakage, so the cost of staying with the OS is not zero. And we made a substantial investment in Mac TCP last year.

But going with Apple on a trip into a new OS and new APIs is not high on the list. Listen to the hype coming out of Apple, they're setting expectations for games and USB peripherals. The rest of the market isn't getting much cover. We listen carefully to this stuff. Apple is not pushing servers or content management solutions. We think many of our customers over time will prefer to run server apps on another OS we support, Windows NT.

One more thing, we were never really happy with going cross-platform. We waited a long time before porting. We moved to Windows because we wanted to have a future. I'm so glad we did now, the picture would look bleak if we were Mac OS only. But we don't live to port. We like to dig in, really support the OS and the users, and go places thru our software, build bigger mountains, not spread out and support every OS known to man.

So the answer is as it always is.. If Apple were to make us an offer, we'd listen, with respect and an open mind. So far they have nothing to say to us. That's OK, thanks to the other OS we support. But I would never commit to developing for a new Apple platform without some realistic reason to trust them, nor would I recommend to our users that they go with Apple unless they talk sense to you. Maybe they do, and maybe they can offer you something that Frontier does, and if you see that, you see the problem..

Now it gets even more interesting. Someone is thinking "Why does he trust Microsoft if he won't trust Apple?" Good question! I'm not trusting either of them. As long as there are two, and as long as we're moving forward on both, I don't need either of them to acknowledge or endorse us. But if we were to be Windows-only, Microsoft would own us, and if we were Mac-only, Apple would own us. I like it just the way it is.

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