Steve Jobs tried many times to convince Dell to quit Windows and switch to Mac OS

Tram Ho

This past October 5th marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. On this occasion, many untold stories about him were revealed for the first time. Surprisingly, one of the most interesting stories announced this time comes from Michael Dell – founder and CEO of Dell Corporation.

The story between Steve Jobs and Michael Dell began more than two decades ago, specifically in 1993. At that time, Steve Jobs left Apple and founded another computer company, NeXT.

Michael Dell said that Steve Jobs repeatedly visited his home in Texas to try to convince Dell to switch to using the NeXTSTEP operating system on the PCs it manufactures. Steve Jobs thinks NeXTSTEP is better than Microsoft’s Windows and will help Dell compete in the Unix workstation space with Sun Microsystems.

Steve Jobs từng nhiều lần cố thuyết phục Dell bỏ Windows để chuyển sang Mac OS - Ảnh 1.

NeXTSTEP OS

However, the founder of Dell rejected this offer of Steve Jobs, saying that the NeXTSTEP operating system had no applications and no user interest.

Four years later, in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple. He once again reached out to Michael Dell to propose cooperation.

This time, instead of NeXTSTEP, Steve Jobs promoted a similar idea but with Apple’s Mac OS operating system. Apple will license the Mac OS to Dell, and Dell may let PC buyers choose the operating system to be installed: either Windows, or Mac OS.

According to Michael Dell, this offer from Steve Jobs had a few problems. Steve Jobs didn’t want Apple to pay a royalty for every PC that came pre-installed with Mac OS, but instead, Apple wanted Dell to pay for every PC Dell sold, even if users opted to use Windows.

Steve Jobs từng nhiều lần cố thuyết phục Dell bỏ Windows để chuyển sang Mac OS - Ảnh 2.

An image once given by Apple to compare iMac and a Dell PC

Michael Dell said he appreciates Steve Jobs’ efforts to come up with this deal, but on Dell’s side, this deal proved unreasonable from a business point of view, because Dell would have to pay Apple hundreds of millions of dollars. USD even if the PC buyer does not use Mac OS.

Another issue that Dell CEO worries about is Apple “abandoning” Dell and its users at any time. Steve Jobs himself did not guarantee that Apple would license the Mac OS integration rights to Dell in the next 3, 4 or 5 years. This will affect Dell’s Mac OS users.

Even so, Michael Dell also said that the deal could have become a historic event if it came to fruition.

Share the news now

Source : Genk