Apple officially pulls the plug on AppleWorks
While ushering in the latest version of its iWork productivity suite, Apple Inc. has quietly pulled the plug on its archaic AppleWorks bundle by permanently discontinuing the product.
According to Macworld UK, the company began informing its reseller channel of the demise last week, announcing that AppleWorks had reached definitive "End of Life" status.
Products dubbed End of Life (or EOL) by Apple are no longer sold or updated. A quick check of the AppleWorks website confirms the move, as it now directs viewers to Apple's iWork website.
Macworld UK notes that the original AppleWorks was written by Robert Lissner and released in 1984 by Apple for the Apple II family of computers, and at one point was the biggest-selling software package in the industry.
AppleWorks was reincarnated in the 90's as ClarisWorks, with Bob Hearn and Scott Holdaway teaming for the majority of the initial development work.
At one time, AppleWorks was bundled with all consumer level Macs sold by Apple. However, it entered a state of limbo in the late 90's at version 6.0 and would never recover.
According to Macworld UK, the company began informing its reseller channel of the demise last week, announcing that AppleWorks had reached definitive "End of Life" status.
Products dubbed End of Life (or EOL) by Apple are no longer sold or updated. A quick check of the AppleWorks website confirms the move, as it now directs viewers to Apple's iWork website.
Macworld UK notes that the original AppleWorks was written by Robert Lissner and released in 1984 by Apple for the Apple II family of computers, and at one point was the biggest-selling software package in the industry.
AppleWorks was reincarnated in the 90's as ClarisWorks, with Bob Hearn and Scott Holdaway teaming for the majority of the initial development work.
At one time, AppleWorks was bundled with all consumer level Macs sold by Apple. However, it entered a state of limbo in the late 90's at version 6.0 and would never recover.
Comments
AppleWorks was reincarnated in the 90's as ClarrisWorks,...
Claris, ladies and gentlemen, not Clarris.
What took so long? Apple Works was dying on the vine years ago...
well we're still missing a database and drawing component to iwork
well we're still missing a database and drawing component to iwork
We are? I have no need for either.
We are? I have no need for either.
i run my business records on apple works
We are? I have no need for either.
And you're probably in the majority.
But those users who were using AppleWork's database are probably missing it in its successor.
Never forget, it's perfectly acceptable to use the pronoun "WE" without any intention of including "YOU".
i run my business records on apple works
Not for much longer.
well we're still missing a database and drawing component to iwork
To that point, it's always puzzled me that iWork doesn't include a lite version of FileMaker Pro. The lack of a draw/paint component seems like a cruel irony, given that MacDraw and MacPaint contributed, in large part, to Apple's early success with the Mac.
Oh well, I guess there's always OmniGraffle and PhotoShop Elements...
Nostalgia moment: Anybody remember the Beagle Bros. addons for AppleWorks 3, which allowed fonts, WYSIWYG previewing, and other cool stuff?
We are? I have no need for either.
As a teacher, who was trained and taught to use AppleWorks, I have to take offense at your cavalier attitude toward those aspects of the program. Many of us in education used and continue to use the program and all of its module components. The word processor, drawing, painting, presentation, spreadsheet integration was simply amazing. All apps could be called on from one menu panel and as many of the features needed could be implemented in one document if needed. The drawing and painting mode gave Illustrator, Quark, In Design and Photoshop features that were the most useful. I could layout a flyer lickety-split (iWorks does do that), but I could insert a drawing or diagram, by making it myself with those drawing tools right into a test with one click without having to use a separate program to make it. Teachers in different areas could make use of each module individually. Art teachers could teach many basic graphic skills without the cost of the big boy programs. When money came available, students then had an easy path to the new program as the skills were already there. I still find that AppleWorks integration of text and graphics can create a quicker flyer that Pages,and although Pages is improving it still cannot be saved in modify-ably useful graphic file formats such as tiff, pict, jpeg or eps. I will hopefully hold out that Apple will add a set of decent drawing tools to Pages and the ability to save in various graphics formats and that Numbers will gain a Database feature if not a fileMaker light program component
Then Netscape came along with that World Wide Web thing and, well...here I am.
Anyone can recommend a good program to substitute AppleWorks' draw?
Not for much longer.
It's not like the copy he has is suddenly going to stop working. Yeesh.
As a teacher, who was trained and taught to use AppleWorks, I have to take offense at your cavalier attitude toward those aspects of the program. Many of us in education used and continue to use the program and all of its module components. The word processor, drawing, painting, presentation, spreadsheet integration was simply amazing. All apps could be called on from one menu panel and as many of the features needed could be implemented in one document if needed. The drawing and painting mode gave Illustrator, Quark, In Design and Photoshop features that were the most useful. I could layout a flyer lickety-split (iWorks does do that), but I could insert a drawing or diagram, by making it myself with those drawing tools right into a test with one click without having to use a separate program to make it. Teachers in different areas could make use of each module individually. Art teachers could teach many basic graphic skills without the cost of the big boy programs. When money came available, students then had an easy path to the new program as the skills were already there. I still find that AppleWorks integration of text and graphics can create a quicker flyer that Pages,and although Pages is improving it still cannot be saved in modify-ably useful graphic file formats such as tiff, pict, jpeg or eps. I will hopefully hold out that Apple will add a set of decent drawing tools to Pages and the ability to save in various graphics formats and that Numbers will gain a Database feature if not a fileMaker light program component
Do you get the sense that iWorks is pretty well integrated across its apps, or is likely to become well integrated across its apps, for your purposes?
I ask because it's clear that more and more apps (in general) are sharing basic modules of functionality. In the case of iLife, all three apps have the same panes for media browser, color picker and adjust image, and I believe someone has pointed out that "tables" in Pages and "spreadsheet" in Numbers are expressions of the same data set.
One thing that occurs to me is that Apple Works was designed for the "cooperative multitasking" days, whereas the current iLife doesn't impose any penalty for keeping all three open and treating it as one app with multiple windows.
I know its not as immediate as the "single app, single window" model of Apple Works, but could you foresee, with the addition, say, of more robust graphics tools in Pages and some better exporting options, iWorks replacing the workflow you have now?
Anyone can recommend a good program to substitute AppleWorks' draw?
Intaglio is the only program of which I'm aware, which will import ClarisDraw files. I'm not sure if it will import AppleWorks files, but I guess you could always export to PICT and go from there. Those familiar with the MacDraw derivatives (CD, AW, etc.) will have no trouble moving to it. It was also included as part of MacUpdate's 2007 promo bundle.
Personally, I use OmniGraffle Pro, however. It won't import your AW draw files, but I like its user experience better. Also, the Visio import/export is nice.
Call me crazy, but I prefer the many-apps model. Look at Office. It has drawing tools... that suck. PowerPoint, Word, they all have sub-par drawing tools. Why bother? Why not be able to choose the app that you want to produce the images you need, and be able to integrate them easily?
That's the route Apple has taken - instead of focussing on how to further lock users in, they have established a few common data formats (PDF, RTF, iCal, vCard, etc) as the lingua franca between apps. This lets, you, the user, choose which apps you need for your jobs, and you can be pretty well assured that they'll all work together.
This is 180deg from the MS model, where you produce a closed environment and hold the data hostage. I vastly prefer the Apple approach.
Numbers is really just a specialized controller UI over the new Intelligent Tables that all three apps use. Which means that, if past performance is a predictor of future behavior, we're going to see that appear as a public Framework for *all* developers to take advantage of before long. Which means that any app, anywhere, has the possibility of having spreadsheet functionality at hand, and it will copy/paste between other apps. That you choose. Slick.
I realize that it was designed for photo retouching (ie. is more like Photoshop than Illustrator), but it can be used for simple image composition tasks as well.