What do Microsoft, Adobe, Quark, FileMaker, Connectix, IBM, World Book, Blizzard Entertainment, Aspyr, and Alias|Wavefront have in common?

Representatives from all ten software companies appeared on stage during Steve Jobs’s keynote to share their Mac OS X plans.

And what great plans they are. Adobe (demonstrating new versions of Adobe Illustrator, GoLive, and InDesign) promises to bring all of its major applications to Mac OS X. Microsoft shows off Office 10 for Mac OS X, a new version of its award-winning productivity suite that has been “redesigned from the ground up to harness the rich possibilities Mac OS X offers,” according to Kevin Browne, general manager of Microsoft’s Mac business unit.

That’s what Microsoft may have on its hands with Office 10 for Mac OS X.

The day after Steve Jobs gave his highly anticipated keynote presentation, Microsoft’s Kevin Browne took the Macworld stage and offered his own captivated audience “their first look at a software engineering tour-de-force: a fully native Mac OS X productivity suite that leverages the strengths of Apple’s next-generation operating system to the hilt,” according to David Graham’s article “Microsoft Office 10 for Mac OS X.”

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. All shine, making exquisite use of the Aqua interface—seeming, in fact, “like an organic outgrowth of the operating system itself.”

When should you expect Office 10 for Mac OS X? Fall of 2001 is the closest Browne can say, but when it ships, “any customer who uses an Office 2001 product can upgrade to Office 10 for just $149 (MFRP).”

Intuit wanted to know what its customers wanted to see in the next version of Quicken for the Mac. So Intuit did the logical thing: it asked Quicken users.

“And the number one thing they requested for a new version of Quicken,” says Adam Samuels, the Intuit product manager for Quicken for Mac, “is native Mac OS X support.”

Quicken 2002 Deluxe, expected before the summer is over, will not only provide greater efficiency, simplicity and stability than ever but will also offer customers some exciting new features, including:

Twenty-two volumes of content packed into a 2-CD set. A built-in word processor and dictionary. Homework Wizards for the kids. And a shimmering, cool blue look.

What is it? World Book Encyclopedia 2002, and it’s available right now—only for Mac OS X.

The World Book development team wanted to offer Mac customers a richer multimedia experience, and by taking advantage of the Aqua interface and the powerful underlying technoloy of Mac OS X, they have.

In grand fashion. From the classical or world music that plays in the background to the randomly-selected images and QuickTime movies that appear on the rippling blue surface of the encyclopedia’s opening screen, World Book is a multimedia delight and an educational treasure trove that offers “a 100 percent Aqua Mac OS X experience.”

Mac gamers got some great news at last week’s Macworld expo: the number of game titles coming to Mac OS X is exploding.

As always, there’s something for everyone. From the Internet-capable iPuppet Classic Cards to the fantasy strategy game Warcraft III, gamers will delight at the variety from which they have to choose. While two more titles based on hit TV game shows are on the way—Jeopardy 2 and Wheel of Fortune 2—fans of 50s-era science-fiction movies will love the campy Otto matic.

The big news, though, is that MacPlay (the company responsible for the upcoming Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn) will be the first company to release a Mac OS X-only game when the irreverent Giants: Citizen Kabuto ships later this year.

The audio pros who attended this year’s Macworld conference certainly liked what they heard.

The word from Emagic, one of the more important name in audio at this time, is that “it will deliver an entire music production suite of hardware and software for Mac OS X.”

In fact, according to “Suite Audio for Mac OS X,” the “final Mac OS X versions of Logic Audio 5.0, and drivers for the Unitor8 MkII, AMT8 and MT4 MIDI interfaces and the EMI 2I6 audio interface will be available this September,” giving audio engineers and enthusiasts a “fully integrated option for Mac OS X audio and raising the bar for music and audio production and post-production on the Mac.”

They use Photoshop, Electric Image, Lightwave, Poser, Bryce, and other Macintosh imaging software to create digital art. Spectacular digital art that was on display at this year’s Macworld Expo.

According to Daryl Wise, who coordinated this year’s event and worked with the two panels of judges who chose the winners, not only are more and more people taking digital art seriously, but the competition among digital artists—such as those who competed in the fourth annual Macworld Digital Art Contest—is getting fiercer. This year, for example, the contest received over 900 submissions. “Entries came in from everybody from little old grandmothers...to graphic artists who work in professional design houses,” says Wise.

Ciro Marchetti’s “Contemplating the System” took Best of Show honors in this year’s competition, but as you can see if you visit the digital art gallery, there were lots of winners.