Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Steve Jobs and tech heavyweights shared several stories about Apple’s late founder for the occasion. A very interesting detail was revealed at this juncture by Michael Dell, in relation to an agreement that could have reshaped the history of technology. According to what Steve Jobs said he wanted to license Mac OS a Dell.
Did Steve Jobs want to license Dell to Mac OS?
Dell spoke about his relationship with Jobs in an interview with CNET, exposing the details of a commercial offer involving the two companies that had never previously emerged.
According to the account, Dell became friends with Jobs over the years he had already cemented his company’s position as a leader in the PC industry. In 1993, Dell then claimed that Jobs visited his home in Texas multiple times to propose adoption of the NeXT operating system., which the computer scientist created after being ousted from his own company. Dell refused, as the NeXT project was already a financial failure.
Subsequently Jobs made a second attempt in 1997, after returning to Apple as interim CEO. As we know, the executive returned by merging NeXT into Apple, saving the latter from bankruptcy and providing the foundations of the new operating system for Mac, what we know today as Mac OS.
It appears that the CEO at that time would have been intent on licensing Mac OS to Dell. The deal would work like this: Apple would have guaranteed the installation of Mac OS and Windows on Dell PCs, allowing the user to choose which operating system to use. To obtain this privilege, Dell would have had to pay Apple a percentage of the sale of all computers.
Also in this case Dell did not sign the agreement. From his point of view it was an inexpensive contract, as he would have to pay for the license to Apple even if the users hadn’t used Mac OS. Despite this Dell admitted that this partnership: “could have changed the trajectory for Windows and Mac OS on PC, but obviously it went in a different direction”.