Ad Terras Per Aspera

So, I didn’t feel like coding today, so I whipped out gimp and messed around with a famous Einstein photo instead, and did something the GNUstep project might like.

So, what do my millions… thousands… hundreds… dozen… two readers think?

So, everyone has noticed the CNET rumor mill bullshitting about Apple ditching IBM for Intel.

You can all stop laughing now; and for those that didn’t get the joke: Apple and IBM are an item. Apple has been using IBM processors since the switch to PowerPC all those years ago, and Apple will continue to be making Macs with PPCs in them until the end of the universe.

However, lets say Apple does get in bed with Intel, we have two choices. (I’m doubting this will happen, but lets humor the idea)

Behind door number one: Apple is secretly working on a new Newton handheld PDA, and wants to use Intel’s half-way decent XScale embedded CPU series, but continuing to use PPC on their desktops, workstations, servers, and laptops.

Behind door number two: Apple is secretly working on reviving Yellow Box (OpenStep for Windows), and wants to produce really cheap Yellow Box+Windows machines, and wants to use Intel x86 on the equivalent of an x86 Mac.

Now, I doubt number two will ever happen. Yellow Box/Windows is a very bad idea, and runs in the opposite direction OSX is going in; however, if Apple were to get their tendrils into Microsoft, Longhorn (often quoted as being Microsoft’s clone of OSX) might actually get released in my lifetime, and actually rock to boot. And if Windows would quit sucking, and inherit Yellow Box functionality, I’d quit hating Windows.

This, however, brings up GNUstep for Windows. If Windows ends up getting an up-to-date version of Yellow Box from Apple, GNUstep for Windows would not be required anymore as we would have OpenStep on Windows provided by the company who bought out NeXT; but it would also become a threat to Yellow Box.

Of course, being able to build OpenStep apps as native Windows ones is not something GNUstep can do, but Yellow Box will be able to do (and will have to do to avoid rejection and failure); this said, I’d even switch to Yellow Box (for building OpenStep apps on Windows) due to its superior integration efforts by the alternate reality Apple (led by Steve Jobs in a beard).

… So, wait, would that mean the alternate reality me runs Windows, because Linux is under a draconian license, and the Overlords Torvald and Stallman are trying to sue Microsoft (the last bastion of freedom in the world) into the ground?