Bonjour for Windows

[deanbo]

What A Crap Name!

I still can't believe Apple would choose the name Bonjour for this technology.
Why not just call it g'day mate!

 

[slb]

Since I don't know why Apple would release this, my only guess is to use the Windows platform to permeate more Apple technologies, like with iTunes. Apple tech everywhere. 🙂

 

[cube]

Rendezvous is not derived from french, it is french. When used in a context with two individuals it usually has a negative connotation. i.e. if someone says "Voulez vous une rendezvous avec moi?" they're essentially asking if you would like to ride the bone roller coaster.

Actually, in French it is rendez-vous (un, not une)
It's just an appointment.

 

[weg]

Must. Change. Name! Now! Rendezvous much better, Bonjour is well--kinda dumb, IMHO.

Don't worry.. there will be localized versions.
"God Dag" for the countries of northern europe.
"Guten Tag" for Germany
"Gruess Gott" for Austria
"Gruezi" for Switzerland
"Buonos Dias", "Buon Giorno", "Dober Dan", "Jo napot" and so on...

 

[Makosuke]

Well, threw this on four Windows boxes, and in installs an extra Bonjour Printer Setup application that you use to add Bonjour printers. Seems to work pretty well--basically configures an LPR printer with a port that would otherwise have taken a bunch of manual typing to set up--and it ended up saving me some boring repetitive typing, so I have nothing to complain about.

One complaint: It sets up printers shared (via Bonjour) on OSX Server properly with one tiny exception: it doesn't automatically turn on "LPR Byte
Counting Enabled" (whatever on God's Good Earth that is), which is required to print to a printer hosted from OSX Server (at least with my printers and network, anyway). If I hadn't already figured out that that needed to be on, and so gone in and clicked the checkbox manually, I'd have thought that it wasn't working at all.

Still, like I said, it saved me a bunch of typing, so I have no complaints.

Oh, and by the way, if there are going to be localized versions, the US one should be called "How's It Going", except unlike other zero-configuration technologies, it actually cares about the answer.

 

[Neerazan]

Bring on the toys!

I wonder if Bonjour on Windows is Apple's response to the more prevalent uPnP for serving media to set top boxes. Right now, several devices including media center PCs, Roku PhotoBridge (I have one of these), Sound Bridge, etc are starting to support uPnP for media sharing. Using uPnP, you can do media sharing including photos, audio, movies, etc. I think Apple might want to roll out a media box that can connect to a Mac or PC using Bonjour. This box could connect to your home theater system including HDTVs and stream movies, pictures and audio to the TV (essentially replicating what Roku PhotoBridge does).

-Siva

I'm with you on this one.

Steve has always said that he doesn't believe that anyone wants to use their computer on their TV, but more and more people do want to use the content that is on their computers on their TV / stereo / home cinema / whatever...

Expect Apple to launch some kind of wireless networked TiVO type box with HD QT7 playback / record facility into the market soon, along with the much anticipated wireless iPod perhaps? Online iVideo Store can but follow...

 

[Morky]

Not reallly new.

This is just the final version. I have had the preview version of Rendezvous installed on my PC at work since last July.

 

[benpatient]

They might as well have called it iVirus for Windows.

Because it's going to get hacked, now, and I wouldn't be surprised if that effects OS X users, too...

great.

 

[bwintx]

U.S. names?

Don't worry.. there will be localized versions.
"God Dag" for the countries of northern europe.
"Guten Tag" for Germany
"Gruess Gott" for Austria
"Gruezi" for Switzerland
"Buonos Dias", "Buon Giorno", "Dober Dan", "Jo napot" and so on...

And let's not forget state-by-state names in the U.S.
Here are a few possibilities.

Texas: "Howdy"
California: "Dude!!!"
New York: "Howyadooin?"
Louisiana: "How y'all ah?" (Actually, they'd probably prefer "Bonjour" after all, come to think of it)
😉

 

[raincoat]

Is Rendezvous/Bonjour automatic or do you have to switch it oon or off?

 

[Porchland]

Trillian is definately the chat app to beat on Windows. And seriously, iChat isn't even the best chat program available for OS X (Adium). I should probably qualify that with the fact that I do no videoconferencing, which would be the only reason for me to fire up iChat, really. Unless you spend lots of time on IM in videoconferences, you can probably do better than iChat.

I don't even use chat apps, and I'd like to see iChat port to Windows. It's all about getting a critical mass and spreading the Apple-y goodness.

As far as software, I agree with the post above that Apple has no reason to port OSX, FCP or its other big brands to Windows. Anything Apple lets out of the yard is going to be an app they can use to entice Windows purchasers to buy Macs or Apple-branded devices and accessories that work on Windows.

 

[BenRoethig]

The more mac standards that become available on windows the the better. Why? Its better for us if they're using our stuff than if they're using Microsoft's stuff which tries its best to be incompatible.

 

[SPUY767]

Actually, in French it is rendez-vous (un, not une)
It's just an appointment.

It's been years since I lived in france, my french is a tad rusty, but it has a negative connotation, such as an appointment with a prostitute.

 

[LosJackal]

I'm with you on this one.

Steve has always said that he doesn't believe that anyone wants to use their computer on their TV, but more and more people do want to use the content that is on their computers on their TV / stereo / home cinema / whatever...

Expect Apple to launch some kind of wireless networked TiVO type box with HD QT7 playback / record facility into the market soon, along with the much anticipated wireless iPod perhaps? Online iVideo Store can but follow...

A cross-platform iFlicks program that can stream HD H.264-encoded content to an Airport Express A/V connected to your living room TV and stereo.

I have an Airport Express currently in my living room (for use with my Macs), and was pleasantly surprised when I fired up iTunes on a PC by chance and it detected it automatically. Bonjour is a very "enabling" technology.

 

[dicklacara]

As long as OS X is still OS X with OS X features, we're ok.

Once we see Windows XP starting up with iChat AV and Mail.app and Safari as the default browser, we're screwed.

au contraire...

...apres le deluge...

P.S. I prefer liaison to bonjour!

 

[cube]

It's been years since I lived in france, my french is a tad rusty, but it has a negative connotation, such as an appointment with a prostitute.

You can have a rendez-vous with anybody.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I still can't believe Apple would choose the name Bonjour for this technology.
Why not just call it g'day mate!

I like that name...
"This printer is 'G'day Mate!' enabled"

Well, maybe not.

 

[sinisterdesign]

i'm picturing Gates' crew reverse engineering Bonjour for Looooonghorn.

"no, we had that built into the new OS all along. seriously. we just didn't want to show it off too much..."

 

[stcanard]

Let me know if it works. Like I said, I'm not getting my printer to show up, and it's supposed to be capable of this.

It worked! Quite easily actually. Printer was shared on Tiger, I installed Bonjour on the XP system, ran the printer wizard and it was listed (still not as nice as the OSX system where the printers just automatically show up in your print dialog).

The only catch was that because of Canon's boneheaded i1450 driver (come on, it advertises the host as 127.0.0.1 and device as file:///dev/null could they have worked any harder at making this thing not shareable?) I had to play a game: I created a new queue through printer setup utility and set it to use a BJC7000 driver, then used bonjour to connect to that one.

 

[Blackjack75]

Rendez-vous in French

It's been years since I lived in france, my french is a tad rusty, but it has a negative connotation, such as an appointment with a prostitute.

Well, I am afraidy your french friends used to make fun of you back then 🙂

I happen to be french-speaking (from french swizerland, which in terms of language essentially means France, frontier-aside).

"Un rendez-vous" is just a plain appointment. You can have a rendez-vous with a girl or with your friends at some bar, or a professional rendez-vous at the office.

The only other meaning would be "rendez vous!" as in "Surrender!". And even then that would not include any relation with a prostitute, unless you're not willing to pay!

Did you happen to live in Pigalle or something? In that place even Bonjour could have negative connotation 🙂

 

[nms]

why would Apple want to do this, surely it's not going to increase their influence THAT much. I'm not against it, it just seems a little....feeble? pointless? someone please enlighten me...

EDIT: with regards to the localisations of Bonjour, if this happens i can see an iTMS argument all over again...

 

[ifjake]

i think it's yet another example of how Apple software just works. you don't have to worry about weird networking stuff with your PC if you buy a Mac, Bonjour will do it for you (that's the idea anyway 😉 ) . That actually reminds me about a CNET article about longhorn, how someone was quoted that they were going to make it "just work" and then proceeded to give two examples: putting a DVD in the drive automatically launches your DVD player and plugging in a projector automatically configures it to display, two things that i've been able to do since i had my Mac. seems as though Apple's getting bored with waiting for Microsoft people to get it to "just work" and are doing it for them. honestly i'm not that big of a mac head, but some of these things are just too obvious.

and i don't think Apple really cared what they renamed it. like people have said it's supposed to work in the background. i'm just happy to hear Apple involved in a lawsuit that didn't involve bullying on their part.

 

[Booga]

By the way, is the Windows version of AIM compatible with iChat video and voice chat?

The current version of iChat is incompatible with iChat videoconferencing. I can't imagine AIM works any better. A lot of people are waiting for 10.4.1 on that one.

 

[Booga]

why would Apple want to do this, surely it's not going to increase their influence THAT much. I'm not against it, it just seems a little....feeble? pointless? someone please enlighten me...

EDIT: with regards to the localisations of Bonjour, if this happens i can see an iTMS argument all over again...

Basically, Apple is pushing the zeroconf (aka Bonjour) standard. If zeroconf doesn't take off, someone else will do something else (incompatible.) In order for a standard to really be useful, it has to run on Windows. It's basically just an insurance policy.

It's actually a really nice technology, and I think has a decent chance to catch on in Windows, and probably, yes, get integrated into Longhorn. But if there's support for it now everywhere, it's less likely that Longhorn would instead go with some sort of "MicrosoftConf" that leaves Apple in the lurch.

 

[BenRoethig]

Personally, I don't care what they call it as long as it works.