Apple will give away what they call "a prelude to Rhapsody" this month at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The bundle, which will be given out to attendees (who pay big bucks to attend), includes single-user, developer-only versions of OpenStep 4.2 for Mach Preview Release 2, OpenStep Developer 4.2 for Mach Preview Release 2, OpenStep Enterprise 4.2 for Windows NT and Windows 95 Pre-release, WebObjects Developer 3.1, and an OpenStep tutorial. Apple says the bundle is designed to get developers experienced with OpenStep APIs. Mac developers had better scrounge up a powerful PC, too: the software runs only on high-end Intel personal computers, not on the Macintosh.
Normally, NeXT would charge over $10,000 for this set of tools. I have complained about this policy to Apple several times, actually, and so have others, apparently: "Apple has realized the NeXT pricing model doesn't work for their developers and is beginning to do something about it," said Alan Oppenheimer, president of Open Door Networks Inc.
Apple also announced that it will deliver its first developer release of Rhapsody later this year. It will demonstrate an early alpha version of Rhapsody and MacOS 8 at the WWDC. Gil Amelio, Steve Jobs, Avie Tevanian and other Apple luminaries will speak at the developer event