Roberto Panetta's email announced the final release of his Shutdown Controller 2.0. It provides a 'controlled' way to sh

Roberto Panetta's email announced the final release of his Shutdown Controller 2.0. It provides a 'controlled' way to shutdown unattended Macs. Using Shutdown Controller you can start a download of a large file via internet and leave your Mac, when the download finishes, Shutdown Controller will shutdown your Mac automatically.

[Editorial] -- The Apple/Power Deal--Death of a True Salesperson:

While it's not the best, it's not the worst of all possible worlds either. We'll really miss Power and may lose Power's energy, excitement, immediate envelope-pressing performance and, most of all, extreme downward pressure on price across the line up. The latter, especially at the high end, was only sustainable for the short term and was what I think really killed the license. My previously published view (8/18) that Apple had given away the Mac OS in a sweetheart deal and, therefore, needed to level the economic playing field or sink is borne out by Steve Jobs' comments to Apple employees--here is Steve Jobs internal memo published by the San Jose Mercury.

We MacFanatics lose the best darn salesman for the Mac platform that we've had in years and that is significant unless the deal re-invigorates Apple. I sure hope so. The Good Ship Apple gains an outstanding direct marketing organization and regains some super engineers--both were badly needed and this is good for the long term if Apple takes advantage of it. This should not be confusing to anyone with a reasonable business sense. Apple needs some things to survive, it has enough cash (better yet stock--actually, this is the most surprising thing to me in this whole deal) and the quickest way to get it is to buy it--especially if this closes a significant economic leak at the same time. I can't say that I like it right now but it appears necessary to The Good Ship Apple's longterm economic buoyancy. Apparently, Power could have paid a reasonable (Apple's perspective, of course) license fee and continued as a cloner but chose not to.

That leaves UMAX and Motorola among the big clone guns. I am willing at this point to take Steve Jobs' words at face value. If UMAX thinks it can make it in the down and dirty area of the lowend and can hold its own with Apple on a level economic playing field at the high end, they'll agree to a reasonable license fee and go for it. If Moto thinks they can make it selling to the enterprise market, they'll get an extension to the license for a reasonable fee and go for it too. I sure hope so on both counts. Jobs' memo says that there is no plan to license the CHRP-based computers at this time. This may mean that Moto isn't willing to pay enough yet but we'll have to wait and see what it really means.

The deal also leaves us Power customers in somewhat of a lurch. Servicing the hardware was left with Power. I'm pessimistic that Power's support for Mac users is going to remain at the excellent level that we've come to enjoy--there's just no incentive for it that I can see. What about the Be OS due us? Well, I already bought it for $4.95 with the October newstand version of MacUser. It's fun to fiddle with but there are no really useful applications that I aware of so it's just an interesting toy right now--not a big loss.

Please don't get me wrong. I am as dejected and saddened as anyone that this chapter of attempting to spread the Mac OS has ended. Spreading the Mac OS is something that I've supported for a long time. For all the reasons mentioned above, I'd hoped that Power would continue as a cloner. The only consolation is that Apple appears better off, at least in the short run, and without The Good Ship Apple there would be no Mac.