This is issue 12 of the1984 Online e-zine which makes this our first anniversary. Since our first issue we have grown well beyond our expectations, sometimes we are even amazed that we are still going at all. The whole thing is a labour of love. We receive no payments for our work and we ask nothing from our readers, except maybe a little feedback. We are motivated by our enthusiasm for the coolest computer platform around and we hope it shows in what we publish. We can remain independent because we are not under any sort of corporate pressure.
We are now starting to look to our next year's issues, maybe even plan out things a little so that it is not 'cobbled' together at the last moment. We are looking to update our website, so there is more information available online. We are also looking to put more emphasis on the PDF version of 1984 Online. Since Issue 9 the PDF version has been produced independently of the usual DocMaker version. We have tried to make the most of Adobe Acrobat's PDF technology to give something that is graphically more interesting with hotlinks to the web sites mentioned in the articles. We have had some feedback from readers saying that they are finding bits missing. We have hopefully resolved that problem with this issue. Please let us know if you are still experiencing problems, and don't abandon the PDF format as we hope to make it even more interesting.
So what is to come in the following year? Who knows? If we had that sort of foresight we would be spending all our time at the bookies. We can be sure of more exciting developments from Apple, whatever they are, and also from their developers.
We, at 1984, will bring you news from the trenches. All our writers are dedicated Mac users who have a wealth of knowledge and experience in all areas of hardware and software and whose livelihoods depend on their machines functioning without fail. We want to bring you positive articles, trying to avoid the mundane dissing of Bill Gates and Microsoft. (To their credit Microsoft are supporting NSPCC and other charitable work for children, which is highly commendable, but they still make lousy software and too much money.) Of course if there is something bad out there, that is to be avoided, we will let you know. We also have some ideas for some different articles that are not strictly Mac but we hope you will find interesting anyway. All our writers welcome feedback and suggestions, which is why we put their e-mail address with their articles, so please feel free to correspond with them. 1984 Online is for your benefit, not ours.
The last twelve months have also seen Apple going from strength to strength since Steve Jobs finally regained control of his vision. And software developers are renewing their enthusiasm for the platform. I would just like to make this comment to both Apple and its major developers, Quark, Macromedia and Adobe in particular and also the small ones as well. Macintosh may be the best hardware and operating system on the market but it is nothing without the great software that makes it the choice of creative professionals around the world. And you, now very rich, software guys - remember that you wouldn't even exist today if it wasn't for Apple. So next time you think about jumping ship, when the going gets a little rough, for the Microsoft millpond, remember how and why you are there. Just work together, there are a lot of people out there who rely on you for their livelihood and they don't want to work for Big Brother.
Before people think I'm on holiday, sorry to disappoint you but I'm hard at work on our site update [which hopefully will be finished for this months issue]. I mean just because I happen to be writing this by a swimming pool on a sandy beach in Hawaii is no reflection that I am skipping my responsibilities for one moment.............where’s that waiter, my Margarita needs a top up.
