Apple News

The future of Mac licencing looks very shaky. Apple have bought back the Mac licence from Power Computing, who were the largest of the Mac cloners. Also, they have not given any licences out for the newly released MacOS 8, leaving Mac clones running System 7.

The reason is that Apple blame competition from Mac clones for their long running losses.

Whether Amiga owners should give a damn about this is another matter... this is supposed to be an Amiga mag after all. It is interesting that this comes at a time when Amiga Inc/Int are actively supporting licencing; I just hope they don't get cold feet, as licencing has got to be a good thing.

Of course, the big news has been Microsoft buying into Apple. Is this because Microsoft wants to support the competition, to avoid being split up due to being a monopoly? On the other hand, $150m won't last Apple long, the way they are losing money (and that sort of money is, well, peanuts to MS) - so what happens when they offer Apple another $150m, but this time a voting-share?

Gateway 2000 may make PCs, but at least they don't make Windoze.

Mark