And then Steve Jobs rejoined Apple. This would become Rhapsody, and some of that technology will become part of Mac OS X. Jobs also eliminated the clones. By January 1998 Jobs was able to announce that Apple was posting a profit as he demonstrated the new G3-based Power Macs. We'd be happy to add a little value to Apple's hardware, but we're not interested in engaging in reverse-engineering efforts, or in public controversy, over this issue. Whether the decision not to go with the BeOS came from Jobs or not, the effect probably will be that the BeOS will not support Mac machines much longer.
Coordination is a lot of work.
The new arrangement allows Be to steer the IDE better, and the process will be meetingless. For a brand new OS without a lot of developers, I think it would strongly behoove Be to take Java as a primary programming environment instead of a secondary one. I do think Be is an impressive OS in an era where operating systems are not the center of attention. A good Java VM would make 100 percent Java applications immediately available to Be users. These would not, of course, take full advantage of the OS, but they would immediately increase the offerings.