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Longtime OS X Chief Bertrand Serlet Working on New Cloud Startup

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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upthere_logo-150x149.jpg


Back in March 2011, Apple announced that senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet was leaving the company after over 20 years working with Steve Jobs at NeXT and Apple. Serlet and Apple were quiet about his future plans at the time, noting only that he wished to "focus less on products and more on science".

Business Insider now reports that Serlet has been working on a stealth Palo Alto-based startup known as Upthere.
The startup is still in stealth mode, so information about it is scarce, but we've uncovered a few details about the company through job postings, trademark requests, domain name registrations and tweets from employees.

The earliest reference to the company online dates back to April of last year, right after Serlet left Apple, when Upthere, Inc was granted the trademark for "Upthere." In that initial trademark request, the startup is described as being a "cloud hosting provider" which offers "consulting services in the field of cloud computing."

Job postings for design engineers started popping up towards the end of 2011, by which point the company described itself as being an early stage startup looking to build a cloud storage feature, with seven employees on staff.
Click to expand...
Additional digging by Business Insider revealed evidence in job postings and a Tweet that Serlet and former Apple and Oracle executive Roger Bodamer are involved with Upthere.

Serlet is known as one of the key figures behind the development of Mac OS X, and he made several appearances on stage during Apple keynotes, perhaps most notably at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2006 where he famously compared Windows Vista to Mac OS X Tiger in his "Redmond, start your photocopiers" presentation.


Article Link: Longtime OS X Chief Bertrand Serlet Working on New Cloud Startup
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/29/longtime-os-x-chief-bertrand-serlet-working-on-new-cloud-startup/
daneoni

daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,637
1,189
Brilliant man and he was hilarious too during keynotes. Wish him the best.
 
L

Loyalty4Life

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2006
138
198
This video is what lured me into being an Apple freak. Bertrand was so funny with this presentation. It's still an epic video. Please take the time to watch it. Just don't watch his glass eye too closely. Might creep you out. :apple::apple::apple:
 
Shrink

Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
I never comment on graphics because I'm a total philistine and incredibly easy to please.

But I gotta say...that's not, IMHO, the coolest graphic I've ever seen. I get the idea of interlocking circles, one above the other, but to my simplemindedly untrained eye...it looks kind of not so terrific or inspiring..

But then, what the hell do I know?? :p:D
 
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borisiii

macrumors 6502
Jul 4, 2010
358
0
I thought he was quoted as saying he was leaving to focus on 'research rather than products' or something similar when he left Apple...

Anyway it'll be interesting to see what they come up with, since they have a mind like his on board.
 
tbl

tbl

macrumors member
Jul 14, 2010
60
5
That video never fails to make me laugh. I have really high hopes for whatever Bertrand does...
 
K

kps

macrumors regular
Jan 10, 2008
102
12
kw.on.ca
I wonder whether it's coincidence that the dumbing-down and closing of OS X began at the same time as he left Apple.
 
P

petsounds

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,493
519
It seems a bit disingenuous for Serlet to say he was leaving to focus on 'science' instead of 'products', and then he goes right out and joins a cloud service startup. Reminds me of the dotcom bomb I worked at where the CEO gave a big speech about how excited he was about the future of the company, and then the next day we were all laid off as he left with his golden parachute.

I have nothing against Serlet though, and I wish him the best. Hopefully he can make a better cloud service than the dodgy iCloud.
 
nuckinfutz

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,539
406
Middle Earth
I miss Bertrand "Surly" Serlet.

Wonder what they got cooking for this new company. Everyone's on this cloud thingy now.

Cloud dating?
 
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PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
considering the work that he did on OS X it will be interesting to see what comes to be from his new project.
 
charlituna

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
Loyalty4Life said:
This video is what lured me into being an Apple freak. Bertrand was so funny with this presentation. It's still an epic video. Please take the time to watch it. Just don't watch his glass eye too closely. Might creep you out. :apple::apple::apple:
Click to expand...

He has a glass eye. I just thought he gets an uncontrollable twitch from having to talk about Windows. I have the same thing happen every time my mother tries to get me to fix her 10 year old Gateway that she refuses to replace
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,838
7,644
Los Angeles
Shrink said:
But I gotta say...that's not, IMHO, the coolest graphic I've ever seen. I get the idea of interlocking circles, on above the other, but to my simplemindedly untrained eye...it looks kind of not so terrific or inspiring..
Click to expand...
Will some people read it as "there up"?
 
lostngone

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
Pan-Fur!!

Say it!!!!!

Pan-Fur!!

For someone that has been to many WWDCs and listened to him speak I always got a kick when he pronounced the word "Panther".
 
Wild-Bill

Wild-Bill

macrumors 68030
Jan 10, 2007
2,539
617
bleep
Explains a great many things......

He probably thought that iOS integration into Lion was a mistake.
He probably thought getting rid of Spaces was a mistake
And he probably thought that not paying any attention to memory management was a mistake
 
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