February 14, 1992: How About a Little Internal Intel?

Mac on Intel once seemed heretical and now seems, well, unavoidable. But 2005 wasn't the first time Apple seriously considered supporting Intel processors. In actuality, there had been thoughts of porting Mac OS to Intel hardware roughly since the beginning of the Mac but the need was never seen as very pressing.

The need became more pressing when System 7 failed to slow Microsoft's momentum in the OS market. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Apple's corporate culture at the time, the big push for porting didn't come from within Apple but from outside in the form of a suggestion from Novell. Novell wanted a GUI interface for their DR-DOS program, so they approached Apple with the idea of porting the Mac OS to Intel hardware.

The project would be known as Star Trek and Apple made great headway until Microsoft hired away project leader Roger Heinen. After the departure, Star Trek soon fell into the Apple corporate mindset of white papers, endless justifications and skyrocketing costs. The project was finally mercifully killed in a Spindler mandated round of cost cutting. The meeting with Novell executive Darrell Miller that started the ball rolling took place on February 14, 1992.