Since the May introduction of System 7, Apple has been shipping all computers with a coupon that users can mail to Apple, good for a free copy of System 7. They recently announced that, beginning at the end of July or the beginning of August, new Macintosh computers (except for the 1Mb Macintosh Classic, the Macintosh SE/30, and floppy-only configurations of the Macintosh LC) will ship with System 7, either pre-installed on the internal hard disk, or in the box for CPUs without hard disks. The Mac Classic and LC will start shipping with System 7 a little later than the beginning of August, no doubt due to the long lead times for these products. The fact that the SE/30 won't be converted to ship with System 7 looks strange, unless you consider the rumour that the SE/30 is due to be replaced this fall by a new Classic '030 machine.

Information from:
Mark H. Anbinder -- mha@memory.ithaca.ny.us