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Microsoft to Continue Mac Support
rakeswell writes "Though Microsoft's five-year agreement to support some Microsoft applications on the Mac has come to a close, Microsoft announces that it will continue its support of the platform. This means that new versions of Office, IE, ODBC, and Palm synchronization will be made available for Mac OS X. Also, they intend to build in .NET support for the Mac, though Microsoft says that they do not intend to push .NET for Mac developers."
The iMac is still bought by many people. Even die-hard techno-geeks are buying TiBooks and running Win2K in Virtual PC for the best of all worlds (Unix with a slick GUI and driver support, Win32 for Exchange and MS VPN, etc.). The G4 is slick looking, and people shell out $$ for them. Microsoft has every interest in keeping its fingers into everything out there, so of course they're going to support the Mac. Besides, this is ammo for their argument that they're not a monopoly - they're nice and work with everyone.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
When the hell has Microsoft ever supported me? I administer 150 NT workstations, 10 Win2k workstation, 3 Win2k servers, and 2 linux boxes, and I still have to find out how to do things through Google because Microsoft's support website sucks, both for navigation and content.
If this is what they mean by support, then I'd suggest the Mac folks could do better by hiring a few net-researchers instead.
"though Microsoft says that they do not intend to push .NET for Mac developers"
Well, duh...
This means that new versions of Office, IE, ODBC, and Palm synchronization will be made available for Mac OS X.
...and I will continue using Appleworks, Mozilla, and Palm Desktop, because I don't want to support MS any more than strictly necessary.
It's a shame that the Mac developers who put out stuff like Office:Mac are working for such an ethically bankrupt company. They do really good work.
--saint
I didn't know Microsoft had any control over that? I though it was these guys.
Amazing magic tricks
Let's think this through, OK?
.Net and capture and control the industry.
Scenario #1: Microsoft dumps Apple, focuses solely upon Windows. Courts notice behavior. Courts say "Now you are going too far with the monopoly thing, Mr. Sedaka, would you please do the honors?" (cue Breaking Up Is Hard To Do).
Meanwhile, a cadre of users are pissed, and start buying products other than Microsoft. The market for such products becomes large enough to be noticed, and somebody else moves in and starts making money. This Will Not Do.
Scenario #2: MS continues support for the Mac. As a result, most Mac users use IE, Word, Office, Excel, etc. for Mac. Competition in those areas is stifled.
In addition, MS can better spread their
Which course of action would YOU take?
www.eFax.com are spammers
It is actually in Microsoft's best interest to make Office X even if it wan't that profitable. Microsoft knows that Apple doesn't pose a threat to it's market share. By supporting Apple's OS they say to the courts that they're really not that bad.
Willy
Well, your partly correct. Palm did have to create the software for HotSync to work natively on OS X before any OS X compatability would be possiable. But now Palm put out the software for OS X so they are all cleared.
Now it is MS's responsibility to make the conduit that connects Entoruge with the new version of HotSync. Now, weither or not MS creates the programing in-house, or contracts it out like the PC version, I don't know.
Course, I could be wrong. Any one care to correct if I am?
AnamanFan - Trying to find the Truth, one post at a time.
Then Greg Maffei gets an email from Gates saying smth like: 'You spent $150 million on what? 'Don't you listen? I said, 'Snapple!'
but is Microstuff's ever going to bring about some sort of Mac compatability for pocket PC's?
Gee, MS can either keep people locked into their proprietary document formats, or they can let a moderately sizable portion of the market escape and start promoting other formats. No-brainer there. Of course they're going to keep making Office/IE for Mac.
The only reason that I can see why they haven't already made Office/IE for Linux is that MS has a bug up their butt about the GPL. Don't be surprised if they release their lock-in magic for FreeBSD before long.
Supporting (or should that be "supporting") Apple is a big win for them in another way too, though, because a certain percentage of Apple users are going to realize that they're mostly using MS products, and are going to find the idea of a switch to an MS platform that much more palatable. Especially given the price advantage of the (admitedly flakey) commodity hardware platform.
What the Linux community needs to do in response (IMO) is also support OS/X as well as we can, so that we make Linux (and, by extension, the BSDs) another viable out for Mac users. And gain the sympathy of the more loyal Mac users, who will surely appreciate having more software (esp. free software) available for their platform.
I know that I'm brushing up my ObjC and starting to browse the GNUstep sites.
Entirely my fault because the advice is "read the article" which I did, but I also "read into" the article.
.NET is the growing digital interconnectedness of business and personal pursuits
.NET is the growing digital intercourse of business and personal pursuits
what it said:
The premise of
What I saw the first read:
The premise of
IOW: here they fscking go again.
Oh, and this gem in the comments:
Mac ODBC doens't work unless you aren't actually using it...
MMmmph, snort, ahahahahhhhaaa.
Yeah, my car doesn't work when I don't use it, either.
/me reaches for a cluebyfour
Naaah, you'd just duck.
.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Translation:
"As long as we can use the Mac version of MS Office as a cudgel to beat you with, you will continue to do everything we tell you to. There's no need to extend the contract."
Seriously... would Apple even dare to put Netscape back into Mac OS? All they have to do is merely think about it and Microsoft would start threatening them. Ditto for web services, media services, and whatever market Microsoft wants to park its steamroller in on any particular day.
Apple really ought to make an effort to get OpenOffice working really, really well as a native Mac OS X application. Then they should use the Mozilla technology to integrate a web browser into the Finder. If done well enough (and we know how good Apple is at desktop stuff), they could make Microsoft irrelevant on the Macintosh platform -- and then they wouldn't have to let Bill push them around anymore.
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Of course, even so, Macs are not suitable for Serious Business Use.
Hmm. Judging from some of the responses I got to this, I should have used explicit sarcasm tags.
I support Macs for a college -- I'm well aware that they are perfectly suited to anything that a typical office requires. I just think it's sort of odd that a reliable computer with quality hardware, a pretty much crashproof OS that's Unix-based to boot, and the best office suite on the market is usually dismissed out of hand as being for "graphics and stuff."
Serious Business Use [tm] is not a problem, but Macs have an unjust reputation as being too lightweight to handle it.
--saint
Also, they intend to build in .NET support for the Mac, though Microsoft says that they do not intend to push .NET for Mac developers." .NET.
People tend to forget that OSX has its own framework - the one based on OpenStep. This is also represented on Linux as GNUStep. Mewonders exactly what Mickey is trying to achieve wihh
> The development environment on OS/X is quite bad...
Bzzt. Wrong.
There are a few different development environments available for OS X. Not the least of which is a full GNU toolchain (actually the NATIVE toolchain) and it ships on a CD with each and every copy of OS X. Carbon and Coca are supported by a very nice IDE (also on the same CD). If you really must, there is also a Metroworks IDE and toolchain, which is one of the best around.
Having come from Linux (since Linux 0.95!), I'm right at home developing on OS X. Having used a pile of different IDEs, Project Builder is very fine piece of work, RAD tools and all.
J
You are; MS has never made a HotSync coduit for either Outlook or Entourage on the PC or the Mac. There are a few third parties that make conduits to do this, but the pigs will be flying before MS even considers supporting Palm, which not only competes with them, but is _winning_ in the handheld market. Not true. Office 2001 for the Mac (which includes Entourage) installs MS-produced conduits for the HotSync manager that allows the Palm to sync with Entourage.