What Might Have Been

I entirely disagree with the idea that Apple had to choose between acquiring Next and becoming a software company ("Apple's Opening Move," March Editorial). Apple's core products have always been computers, and Apple continues to produce excellent hardware designs. The best option -- one Mark Schlack ignored -- would have been for Apple to put all its efforts into hardware. Apple could have offered a PowerPC machine capable of running the Mac OS, with all its 68000-emulation baggage, as well as the native PowerPC version of Windows NT. Mac and Windows users would have been able to run their old applications along with new, native PowerPC/NT applications. That sounds like an ideal platform to me, and it would have allowed Apple to gracefully exit the OS business and retire the Mac OS while offering a clear upgrade path for its current use rs.

T. A. Stephens
tas@ricochet.net