How long until Apple introduces the official Mac [u] App Store [/u].

[update: Answer - Two Years and Four Months. The Mac App Store is expected to launch late January 2010]

Users can Try and Buy Apps using iTunes’ App Store, the most successful App storefront ever (iPhone App Store).

The latest edition of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) provides developers with a full development and publishing environment. Xcode 4.0 makes publishing Apps and App Updates as easy as one click.

I have linked to Wil Shipleys venture Golden-Braeburn.com recently, and while I see a very successful niche for him, I’m sure a large section of the development community will drink the Cupertino KoolAid.

Apple has a way of pushing in house integration (ala iLife, .mac, etc.). Usually the features are neat, simple and leave the user longing for more. It’s just their style.

MacHappens

1. How do you tackle a deadline?

I think it’s more like the deadline tackles me. On rare occasion I will work on something well before it is due, but most of the time if it weren’t for some kind of deadline I would probably just keep procrastinating forever. One of my main writing gigs for a long time has been Linux.com / Newsforge.com. They’ve never given me a deadline, so I made my own up just to keep myself straight. Besides, you don’t get paid if you never turn in a story – so I guess you could say an empty refrigerator is a universal deadline.

2. Give us a brief breakdown of your workflow on a given project.

For a while I was writing a lot of case studies for Linux.com, and really got into a nice groove with that. At the beginning of the week I send out queries to find companies using open source or producing it, or both. As the responses come in, I schedule telephone appointments to talk to the CEO or the director of IT or both, usually on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Once I get my notes from the interviews, it’s just a matter of setting aside a day to write. I can write two stories in a morning or afternoon, and that’s usually all I have the energy for. After that, I have to go outside and do something else.

3. Your favorite OS and why?

It depends on what I’m doing, really. If I’m getting online to do research and to write, there’s no doubt that Linux is my favorite. It is faster, more reliable and more secure than anything else out there. And it keeps getting better and better. I like to use Ubuntu lately. It tells me when there are updates ready, and it makes it really idiot-proof to update and to find and install new applications. Plus, it is free. However, if I’m going to be working with video or editing photos, I still prefer Windows. I know that Linux has made great strides in working with digital photos and cameras, but I still find that it is easier with Windows. I don’t want to spend any time at all configuring my operating system when what I really want to do is color correct some photos and print them, or pull some of the best clips out of that birthday video I took and add a soundtrack. I’ve never used MacIntosh but I would really love to one day when I come into some money.

4. What applications do you use primarily to create your work?

If I’m in Linux I use whatever text editor is on hand. In Windows I use Notepad or Word. I haven’t been a big fan of OpenOffice.org (am I allowed to say that?), but I haven’t tried it recently so it may be much less clunky now. (I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to say that.) And that’s about it.

5. What hardware do you use primarily to create your work?

People may disparage the emachines brand, but I’ll tell you that this computer has been the longest lasting I’ve ever had (the hard drive will probably fail tonight because I am foolhardy enough to say how great it is). I’ve been using this refurbished desktop system that I bought from TigerDirect for several years now. I’ve partitioned and re-partitioned the drive, formatted it, reinstalled various iterations of Windows and Linux, and it is still going. I’ve been through three monitors with this computer and probably just as many printers.

6. Your thoughts on resolution independence?

I had to go look this up, I confess. What I gathered is that with resolution independence I might increase the resolution on my display without the corresponding decrease in font and image sizes. It sounds great to me, although sometimes I like having more text displayed on the screen. If I had the option to adjust font and image size according to my preferences that would be ideal.

7. How do you contribute/share with your community?

I guess my community is the community of IT writers and journalists with whom I interact on a daily basis through the Internet Press Guild. We share ideas, jokes, and insults and support each other through our various layoffs, and lend a shoulder to cry on when our editors get particularly testy. Not everyone on the list is a free software advocate, so those of us who do use and write about Linux get to boast and say “I told you so” when the others have virus problems and things like that.

8. Who would you like to work/collaborate with?

I really enjoy working with my colleagues at Linux.com. I’ve been working with a number of them since 1999, when we wrote columns and news pieces for Andover.net, and then Newsforge.com. Robin Miller gave me my first break at IT writing, and I’ve been working with him ever since. You get to the place where it feels like family.

9. When did you justify to yourself that you could make a living off what you do?

That happened around the same time I first met Robin and he asked me to get on board at Andover as a contract writer. I was astounded that I could ply my trade as a writer and actually make enough money to work from home, be with my kids, and pay the bills.

10. Your favorite creation?

That depends on the day. With all the hundreds and hundreds of tech related stories I’ve written over the years, it’s not the story that glean satisfaction from. As a writer, it’s still that particular sentence, or that beguiling lead paragraph, or that special quote at the end of the story, or that clever alliteration in the headline. These are the things that satisfy and propel me onward. The paradox is that I cannot hold on to my creations – I birth them and then surrender them to the editor. It is a transitory pleasure.

Thanks for your consideration, and your work.

Thanks for asking me.

Tina’s Jewelry Shop

MacHappens

1. How do you tackle a deadline?

Usually by procrastinating until achieving the project within the remaining time is nearly impossible. Then frightening myself with the near-impossibility of the deadline and killing myself getting it all done just in time.

2. Give us a brief breakdown of your workflow on a given project

My workflow varies a lot. Typically some scribbling on paper and then diving into computer code of one sort or another. Sometimes the code is replaced with electronic parts or cardboard, but a lot of the process looks the same anyway.

3. Your favorite OS and why?

I’m on Tiger OSX after many years as a Windows XP user. I have my whole setup just as a I like it for my way of working and OSX just seemed to make that a lot easier.

4. What applications do you use primarily to create your work?.

I’d say Textmate, for writing code, and Firefox, for Google, are my main tools. Plus I use Processing (processing.org) and Arduino (arduino.cc) for my more arty projects.

5. What hardware do you use primarily to create your work?

I work on a 1st gen Macbook. At the office I use an external keyboard/mouse and a 24″ Dell LCD screen. That setup works really well for me. Though I do cast longing glances toward the new Macbooks with their much more powerful graphics systems (plus their added shininess).

6. Your thoughts on resolution independence?

I just had to look it up on Wikipedia to see what it was. I guess that suggests I don’t have any very valuable opinions on the matter.

7. How do you contribute/share with your community?

Recently I’ve been trying to be more active on forums that I have found useful for helping my work. In theory I am very pro-open source too, but I don’t really feel like I’m a good enough coder to release any of my stuff. I am always happy to answer questions on how my projects work though.

8. Who would you like to work/collaborate with?

Lately I’ve been getting into the tech/art scene. Though I’d say that I’m more of a technologist with some artistic clue. So I’d really like to collaborate with more ‘real’ artists.

9. When did you justify to yourself that you could make a living off what you do?

When it turned out I could consistently pay my share of the mortgage.

10. Your favorite creation?

I like the work I’ve been involved with through the Media Lab Toronto group. I love playing at the crossover between the physical and digital. TXTRis is one of my favourites and TXTRis Mark II is in progress so I’m looking forward to showing that to people.