Utopia Planitia Archive

In early 1998, John decided to start writing on the Internet about Apple. Apple seemed to be a failing company at the time, and so the idea was to rally the readers. The column was named Utopia Planitia in honor of the (fictional) Star Fleet ship yards on Mars. It started at 32 Bits Online, then moved to "The Mac Opinion" which was conceived by Ben Garland. Later, Applelinks.com acquired The Mac Opinion. The column then just took off.

Note: the table of contents below is complete, but not all articles have not been re-formatted for the archive. It's a work in progress.

#1 - Utopia Planitia - Opening Commentary - March 3, 1998

#2 - Freedom - March 10, 1998

#3 - New Age Decision Making - March 16, 1998

#4 - Commodity Thinking - March 23, 1998

#5 - The Yellow Box Road - April 1, 1998

#6 - Degrees of Freedom - April 12, 1998

#7 - The Tough Questions for Apple - April 14, 1998

#8 - Apple's Future History - April 21, 1998

#9 - Reflections on Apple's Future - April 27, 1998

#10 - Visions and Paradigms - May 4, 1998

#11 - Always Apple, Encore Edition - May 10, 1998

#12 - They're Serious This Time - May 18, 1998

#13 - Microsoft: The Downward Slide - May 26, 1998

#14 - Bubble Sort Thinking - June 1, 1998

#15 - Dear Macintosh: I Know What You Did Last Night - June 14, 1998

#16 - Dear Microsoft: I Know What You Did Too! - June 22, 1998

#17 - Cinderella Is A Nobody, But Her Sisters Are Still Ugly - June 28, 1998

#18 - We Don't Need No Stinking Evangelists - July 6, 1998

#19 - The Spirit Of The Evangelists - July 13, 1998

#20 - Summer Allergies: Apple and Unix - July 20, 1998

#21 - Where Have All The Stars Gone? - July 27, 1998

#22 - The Power To Be ... Just As Good? - July 30, 1998

#23 - My Mac Needs to Get a Life - August 3, 1998

#24 - Sturgeon's Law And The Macintosh - August 10,1998

#25 - Liars, Statistics and Apple Market Share - August 17, 1998

#26 - The Lords Of The Flies And PCs - August 24, 1998

#27 - The Macintosh SciFi Channel - August 31, 1998

#28 - Your Date With Cindy - September 7, 1998

#29 - Going to War with WindowsNT: Another Viet Nam? - September 14, 1998

#30 - So You Think You're Computerized? - September 24, 1998

#31 - Is MacOS X Server Dead? Part I - October 05, 1998

#32 - Is MacOS X Server Dead? Part II - October 12, 1998

#33 - Print Media: Wake Up! It's Time To Die - October 19, 1998

#34 - MacOS X Server, the Moon, and the Journey - October 26, 1998

#35 - Degrees of Freedom - Revisited - November 2, 1998

#36 - MacOS X - A Holiday Wish - November 9, 1998

#37 - The Wolf That Got Run Over by a Reindeer - November 23, 1998

#38 - Thinking In The Box - November 30, 1998

#39 - Why Modern OSes Must Be Open Source - December 7, 1998

#40 - Being On The Winning Side - December 14, 1998

#41 - The Top 10 Dangers for Apple in 1999 - December 28, 1998

#42 - How My Linux Killed Her NT - Januray 6, 1999

#43 - MacOS X Server: Thoughts on The Strategy - January 11, 1999

#44 - Apple and Linux: What, Me Worry? Part I. - January 18, 1999

#45 - Apple and Linux: What, Me Worry? Part II. - January 25, 1999

#46 - Apple and Linux: What, Me Worry? Part III. - February 1, 1999

#47 - Apple and Linux: The Readers Respond - Februaru 8, 1999

#48 - So You Want To Be a Visionary? - February 15, 1999

#49 - The Retail Chains: Just Don't Go There! - February 22, 1999

#50 - Aha! Price, Convenience and Design - March 1, 1999

#51 - Bill's Date With Section One - March 22, 1999

#52 - Preparing for Your Next Macintosh - March 29, 1999

#53 - AOL's Trap For Microsoft Might Squish Apple - April 5, 1999

#54 - Resistance is Fruitful - April 19, 1999

#55 - The Next Big Deal In Software - April 26, 1999

#56 - Take My iMac...Please! - May 3, 1999

#57 - So, Who DO You Trust? - June 1, 1999

#58 - Top 10 Dangers For Apple - Midyear Update - June 7, 1999

#59 - Why The P1 is Late - June 14, 1999

#60 - Plundering The Pirates - June 23, 1999

#61 - The Power To Be Stupid - July 12, 1999

#62 - The Bizarre Journey - July 19, 1999

#63 - The iBook - Young at Heart - July 28, 1999

#64 - The Invasion That Never Came - August 2, 1999

#65 - Subversive Tactics: How to Drive the PC Managers Nuts - August 9, 1999

#66 - Subversive Tactics From The Field - August 12, 1999

#67 - The Good of the Many... - August 24, 1999

#68 - Now THAT's Entertainment - August 31, 1999

#69 - The Cosmic Quarantine - September 7, 1999

#70 - Ethics, Software Honor, and The Folly of Men - September 14, 1999

#71 - The Sorry State of Macintosh Software Reviews - September 21, 1999

#72 - The Limits of Power - October 5, 1999

#73 - The Limits of Power, Part II - October 12, 1999

#74 - A Ride on the Wayback Machine - October 18, 1999

#75 - The Lost Art of Salesmanship - October 26, 1999

#76 - In Search of the Perfect Truth - November 2, 1999

#77 - How To Write For The Macintosh Web - November 16, 1999

#78 - Let's Go Christmas Shopping - November 24, 1999

#79 - The Top 10 Dangers for Apple in 1999 - Final Report - November 30, 1999

#80 - The Cat Who Loved Macintoshes - December 7, 1999

#81 - Freehold Housekeeping - December 21, 1999

#82 - Lucy Linux Returns For The Weekend - February 3, 2000

#83 - The Real Reality Distortion Field - February 10, 2000

#84 - Mister Wizard: Meet The Internet - February 24, 2000

#85 - We Don't Need Rude Software - March 3, 2000

#86 - Rude Software: The Readers Respond - March 10, 2000

#87 - My Fantasy Life - March 16, 2000

#88 - Is Loyalty to Apple Sufficient? - March 23, 2000

#89 - So You Wanted a Real OS? - April 6, 2000

#90 - Why We Need a New Mac Browser - May 14, 2000

#91 - An iMac Surprise at Macworld? - June 5, 2000

#92 - The Self Congratulatory Mac User - July 5, 2000

#93 - Predicting the Future of Mr. Jobs - July 17, 2000

#94 - Tactics to Undermine the I.T. Nazis - August 4, 2000

#95 - Sailing Beyond The Sunset - August 11, 2000