By Gary Kirchherr
Well, whadda ya know. The omnipotent Micro$oft has been hauled into court by the only entity in the known universe with the power and resources to challenge it - the United States government. The mainstream media have picked up on the story enough so that everyone with any interest in the news at all is aware of the basics. Good.
A few Micro$oft apologists continue to whine about how the big, bad government is stifling "competition," but fortunately, the rest of the country seems to understand what a monopoly is and the problems that an arrogant, bullying monopoly cause. And the Department of Justice, 20 states and the District of Columbia believe Micro$oft's exclusionary contracts and other anticompetitive practices constitute an abuse of monopoly power. The feds filed one lawsuit; the states and D.C. have a similar, parallel case.
Fortunately, now that the antitrust action is part of the evening news, faithful readers of this column don't need me to tell them what's happening with the case. So in the future I'm going to try to devote less space in this column to Micro$oft-bashing, leaving me more time to talk about - gasp! - something else! But at least allow me to point out Ziff-Davis Network News' special report on the lawsuits. ZDNN has compiled links with the latest news, background, politics and commentary on the action. Check it out, bookmark it, and refer to it often. The mainstream media may have belatedly jumped on the bandwagon, but I prefer to refer to computer publications that I know understand the subject.
I still haven't forgiven Apple for abolishing the clone program, but at least "interim" CEO Steve Jobs isn't taking Apple back to the bad old days of using its Mac-hardware monopoly to charge so much more than comparable Intel computers. (I will concede, we have Micro$oft Windows to thank for forcing Apple to get off its complacent butt and compete price- and featurewise.) Apple showed it's willing to give customers a powerful, cool computer for a good price. And about time, too.
Early in May, Jobs showed unveiled the $1,299 iMac - an all-in-one device with, among other things, a 15-inch screen, 32 megs of RAM, a 233-MHz G3 processor, and even built-in Ethernet. Not bad!
The bad news is, this beauty won't be available until August. And by then, the included 33.6Kpbs modem that comes with it will be even more outdated than it is now. But the computer's still a steal, considering the prices and speeds of Macs and clones until recently. Oh, yeah, Apple has new G3 PowerBooks too.
More information on the iMac, including photos, is available from ZDNN's May 8 article on it.
Apple had news on the software side, too. Less than a week after Jobs showed off the iMac for the first time, Apple released plans for its next-generation system software, Mac OS X (that's "ten," not "ex"). In a nutshell, Apple is dumping its vision of Rhapsody as a brand-new cross-platform OS, but at the same time incorporating some of Rhapsody's better features (memory protection, speedy networking, etc.) into an OS that can do spiffy things with new applications while still supporting older Mac applications.
MacAddict's May 12 article "Mac OS Xplained" noted that Mac OS X won't support some features that sounded nifty but never won the hearts of Mac enthusiasts - most notably, QuickDraw GX and Publish-and-Subscribe. Good riddance. I'm more concerned that Apple isn't committing the OS to run on anything except G3 Macs, although this does not yet necessarily mean those of us with older Macs are shut out. Frankly, I'll be peeved if the then-whiz-bang 604e-based clone I bought just last year already is obsolete.
But what about Rhapsody? MacAddict says Rhapsody still will ship this fall "as a server platform for publishing and Internet solutions," but Mac OS X will replace it next year.
Ric Ford's May 27 Macintouch column had the unsettling news that a new "worm" program, AutoStart 9805, can wreak havoc and damage files on systems using QuickTime 2.0 or later. A "worm," unlike a "virus," doesn't spread itself by infecting other files; rather, it simply duplicates itself on other volumes it comes in contact with. The nature of this insidious program makes it immune to virus-protection programs like John Norstad's Disinfectant, and commercial anti-viral tools that aren't designed specifically to look for it.
Two things you can do to keep AutoStart 9805 off your system are, one, disable the AutoPlay settings in the QuickTime Settings control panel; and two, buy a commercial antivirus package to make sure your system doesn't have the worm already, and to make sure it stays off.
The story about the worm had news I wasn't aware of - that Norstad had retired Disinfectant in early May. Disinfectant for years had provided free virus protection for countless Macs, and the public service this man has performed to the Mac community cannot be overstated. But he was doing it on his own time, and he said the Microsoft macro-virus problem was simply too much for a freelancer to deal with. "I simply do not have the resources to combat a problem which is this huge in scope and complexity," he said in his written announcement. Norstad denied AutoStart 9805 was the reason he was throwing in the towel, but the timing of his announcement does seem to be an odd coincidence.
I guess we all have to start thinking about coughing up $50 for a commercial antivirus program. Be sure to mumble your thanks to virus-writing scum as you write out that check.
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