Lorem Ipsum

I bought the Encyclopedia Britannica CD two or three years ago, and have been thoroughly pleased with having the entire encyclopedia available anywhere I can take my PowerBook. The interface leaves a little to be desired, but I could certainly live with it. And I think it cost about $40, as opposed to $1300 for the non-portable print edition.

I wanted to buy the 2001 edition when it came out about a year ago, but discovered to my annoyance that it was available only for Windows. I know that Mac market share is relatively small, but given that the interface was browser-based, I can't imagine that it would've been that much more work to make the thing work on the Mac.

I contacted the Britannica people several times to ask them about it. (Generally when they sent me papermail flyers saying "Hey! Why haven't you upgraded?") They always told me that they had no schedule for when or if a Mac version would be available.

It's become even more of a problem since I stopped using Netscape Navigator as my main browser, since that's the only browser the 1999 version works in.

(For a while, the whole encyclopedia was available for free on the Web, but I think they've switched to a pay model, and anyway it's not so convenient for looking stuff up while sitting in a cafe.)

But today I got another flyer from them. I was about to throw it out in disgust, but decided to take a look at it to see what I was missing. And Lo! the Mac version of Britannica 2002 is now available. And they're offering a discount to people upgrading.

There are two Mac versions: the Mac/Windows Standard Edition CD, for $40 (or $30 after rebate), which on the Mac only runs under OS X, and the Mac Expanded Edition DVD, which has more pictures 'n' stuff and runs on OS 8 and 9 (I think), for $70.

And of course it's also available for Windows, but that's nothing new.

Ever wanted a huge encyclopedia at your fingertips? Stop by the Britannica store and pick one up.

Jed is pleased.