Maybe that's why Apple boss Mike Spindler dropped by Chesapeake Drive for a recent chat with Steve Jobs. Apple knows that NeXT has had NEXTSTEP running on PowerPC-based systems in its labs. It could be a ready-made answer to Microsoft's Cairo project. Evidently, the meeting ended at the "let's keep talking" stage, while Spindler deals with more pressing issues.
And that's just one intriguing iron in the fire. Sources say that HP is interested in raising the stakes beyond its Object·Enterprise deal with NeXT. Steve would be thrilled to get an equity investment out of the deal, while HP more likely wants to purchase NeXT outright.
Any such deal would help NeXT bring its debt into line, which includes the $65 million it ran up on that pesky Canon Express Card (don't leave Apple without it). NeXT and Canon are rumored to have hammered out a final agreement sharing hardware assets, intellectual property, and other goodies. Among the assets headed to Canon is the rights to NRW. Canon also seems to have snapped up some engineers to work on a product based on NeXT's RISC workstation design Ð though there are no guarantees it will run NEXTSTEP, of course.
On the third-party front, RightBrain Software canceled an ExactlyWrite demonstration at a recent BANG meeting with only 24-hours notice. With little else to do, the crowd repaired to Compadre's, thinking they might run into RightBrain chief Glenn Reid at his usual watering hole. Sure enough, Glenn showed up a short time later with this cryptic explanation: Since traditional models for software are breaking down in the NEXTSTEP marketplace, RightBrain will bring its word-processing technology to market in a more modern and interesting way than previously planned. Expect an announcement "in a month or so," he said. Was Millennium's Newsgrazer Pro announcement triggered by fears of NeXT throwing its NewsGrazer source code over the proverbial transom?
NewsGrazer was written by Millennium's Jayson Adams in a former lifetime, as a NeXT employee. When he learned that NeXT was considering putting the source code on the net, Millennium accelerated its plans for an all-new Pro version and convinced NeXT to distribute a multiple-architecture version of the original without sources.
NeXT has been innundated with user requests for an Intel version of FrameMaker. That's well and good, but to really have some impact, it would be more useful for those who have an opinion on the subject to go to the source. Tell Frame Technology what you think at 403/433-3311.
Now here's a buy that might get any company to port to NEXTSTEP: A government agency recently put out to bid for 20,768 copies of a word processor, 8787 copies of a desktop-publishing package, 7142 copies of a spreadsheet, and much more, including printers, COBOL compilers, and calendaring software. Systems integrators are talking to various software vendors now to put together their quotes. A final decision is not expected until the spring of 1994.
On the down side, Calgary's Department of Motor Vehicles just went down from a projected 600-seat NEXTSTEP installation to a modest 80-seat plan. The agency is due to be privatized, and the private-sector network will now be based on DOS/Windows.
NeXT is making progress on the object-oriented file system that it has hinted may replace the UNIX file system in NEXTSTEP 4.0. The project is far enough along to have a code name: Soup. The file system would contain programs, files, images, as well as Ð well Ð objects. This could be a really big step forward in the next version of the operating system but also carries some backward-compatibility issues that NeXT is considering carefully.
Little things like new technology pale in comparison to some of the other changes NeXT has on deck. In the future, Sullivan hears, the name NeXT will be replaced by NEXT. Another score for the Capital Es.
Soups of all kinds are best sipped from a Lt. Sullivan mug. Get yours in exchange for bits of inside information. Leave Sullivan a voice-mail message at 415/978-3374 or e-mail him at sullivan@nextworld.com. If you are nervous about privacy, e-mail ahead first for Lt. Sullivan's RSA public key.