X-POP3-Rcpt: jaques.law@louise Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:53:24 -0600 From: Donald Jaques Reply-To: djaques@eagle.wbm.ca MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kevin Eric Jaques Subject: [Fwd: Helix and NeXT enviornment] Received: from maelstrom.stjohns.edu (maelstrom.stjohns.edu [149.68.1.24]) by eagle.wbm.ca (8.6.9/8.6.6) with ESMTP id NAA07570 for ; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:01:18 -0600 Received: from maelstrom.stjohns.edu by maelstrom.stjohns.edu (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.0a) with SMTP id 30494BB6 ; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:46:40 -1300 Received: from SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU by SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8b) with spool id 1515 for HELIX-L@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:47:14 -0500 Received: from SJUVM (NJE origin SMTP@SJUVM) by SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 1514; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:46:40 -0500 Received: from emout04.mail.aol.com by SJUVM.stjohns.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R3) with TCP; Mon, 23 Dec 96 13:46:36 EST Received: by emout04.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA24399 for HELIX-L@sjuvm.stjohns.edu; Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:45:52 -0500 Approved-By: ArtCarter@AOL.COM Message-ID: <961223133749_2019499867@emout04.mail.aol.com> Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:45:52 -0500 Reply-To: Helix Express Discussion List Sender: Helix Express Discussion List From: ArtCarter@aol.com Subject: Helix and NeXT enviornment To: Multiple recipients of list HELIX-L X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 The following message from Ellen Hancock (Apple's CTO) was posted to the MacWay Digest on Sat, 12/21/96 How will this affect Helix Technologies development in the future? Larry? Steve ? Any comments? Art Carter South Sound Software ___________________________________________ A Letter From Ellen Hancock, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Dear Apple Developers: Today Apple announced it has entered into an agreement to purchase NeXT in a friendly acquisition. NeXT employees, products, services and technology research will become part of the Apple organization. Although this is not a full disclosure of the detailed Mac OS strategy, I felt it was important for me to share my thoughts on what this acquisition means to you, our developers. As we have previously stated, we plan to announce the comprehensive Mac OS strategy at Macworld in San Francisco on January 7, 1997. The acquisition of NeXT demonstrates that Apple is embracing outside technology and cross platform standards. It's clear the "not invented here" syndrome is dead. NeXT's development environments allow developers to write once and deploy across a range of platforms. One of NeXT's greatest strengths is its rich collection of tools which allows for rapid assembly, integration and deployment of multi-platform solutions. NeXT's dynamic object-oriented development environments also allow enterprise customers to develop software solutions quickly and deploy reusable applications on either traditional client-server or Internet/intranet-based networks. These same tools enable new applications to access legacy data and applications which protect customer investments in information technology. The acquisition of NeXT is expected to solidify Apple's inherent strengths in the Internet/intranet space. Current Apple Internet products and technologies, when combined with NeXT's object-oriented Java-enabled open development platform, should give us a competitive advantage and the opportunity to become a preeminent development and deployment platform for Java technology. I believe that NeXT's profitable development environments for enterprise and Internet markets allow Apple to supplement its growing list of software products with a ready-made portfolio of powerful customer-focused software solutions. This acquisition is expected to be a significant milestone in building a differentiated, sustainable and profitable software business. Finally, NeXT's OS is mature and robust and can serve as a strong foundation for the future of Apple's software business. NeXT's OS provides many of the features you have been demanding in a future OS such as fully preemptive multitasking, protected memory and robust information linking and networking capabilities. It also contains a powerful object-oriented architecture which provides a greater scalability from laptops to server-level products. I am also confident that compatibility with existing applications will be strong in Mac OS as it evolves. I believe that the acquisition of NeXT will be good for Apple developers. I believe it will enhance your development environment and strengthens your position in several of Apple's key markets, namely enterprise and the Internet/intranet space. The integration of NEXTSTEP OS technology into future versions of the Mac OS should result in a robust, modern OS that provides customers and developers with a media-rich and Internet-savvy platform. It really is my pleasure to share what I feel is great news and I look forward to your continued support. I believe this acquisition represents the passage of a major milestone in Apple's transformation and renaissance. We enter a new year with even greater relevance in the industry and a much stronger position as a mainstream, open player. Ellen Hancock Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Technology Officer Apple Computer, Inc.