On 1/19/01 10:50 AM, "Adam Boettiger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> Then they'll have something to look forward to when they do move. What's the
>> hurry for people who are a bit cautious?
>
> Here, in a nutshell, is the point that I am trying to communicate, perhaps
> poorly in previous messages:
>
> On a Windows OS, be it 98, ME or 2000, I can use Outlook 2000. I do not
> have to upgrade an operating system from 98 to be able to use the very
> latest upgrade or version of Outlook 2000. It is multi-OS version compliant
> (if there exists such a term).
>
> Why is it, however, that in order to use an upgraded, improved or future
> version of Entourage beyond the first release, that we will have to upgrade
> the Mac OS each time? Is this a double-standard from the way such programs
> are being developed for Windows, and if so, why?
>
> From a sales and revenue standpoint it would seem like a wiser choice would
> have been for MS to continue to make future versions of Entourage compatible
> with 9.x _as well as_ OSX so that the customer base is as large as possible,
> rather than force consumers to upgrade their OS. Or is this a technical
> impossibility given that there are such dramatic differences between 9.x and
> OSX?
The upgrade path from 98, ME, 2000 etc is much different from OS 9 to OS 10.
When Developers shipped software for windows, in order to carry the logo,
the had to garuntee compatibility with NT. Hence, most software that shipped
for 95/98/ME worked on NT4/2000.
Win32 APIs have largely remained compatible on all Oses. Apple's strategy is
very different, albeit better than telling developers to throw away all
their code and start from scratch.
Furthermore, none of these versions of windows included sweeping UI changes.
We have to touch over 800 or so dialogs in Office and lay them out per Aqua
guidelines, something you never had to do with new versions of Windows.
There is a substantial cost to make an OS X app form an OS 9 app. The cost
of making that app work on both OS 9 and OS X is not technically possible
for us if we want to take advantage of technologies on OS X that don¹t'
exist on OS 9 (Quartz).
-Omar
--
Omar Shahine - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.shahine.com/omar
Program Manager - Entourage:mac - Macintosh Business Unit
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