[SllX]

Apple actually did investigate Linux with MkLinux (a project to port Linux to PPC and run it on top of Mach). Neat, but arguably a symptom of their larger issues which were less technical and more leadership which was stifling whatever technical and design excellence there was left. Plus the Clones were eating them alive.

Any OS they released to replace the classic OS, which at that time would have been System 7, needed Macintosh App compatibility, and they wouldn’t have needed Linux or Unix or BSD or OPENSTEP or BeOS if they could have just shut up, clamp down on the mission creep and ship Copland. Apple’s Executive leadership in the mid-90s was unable to execute on that, and none of their side-projects were going anywhere in a sustainable (to Apple) fashion either.