The Forgotten Mac OS Licensee (1991)

The Forgotten Mac OS Licensee (1991)

Author: Derek July 21, 2026 Duration: 20:41

Original text by Dan Littman, Tom Moran, and Charles Piller.

Apologies for my rough voice in this one. It’s been a difficult year.

“Apple and IBM will work together on architecture-independent multimedia products and license them to other vendors.” IBM never so much as bothered to license QuickTime, and allegedly stopped distributing its multimedia tools to discourage people from using AIX for multimedia delivery.

The stupefyingly vague and dull Apple/IBM/Motorola alliance press conference. Warning: do not consume while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Get to know your new IBM RS/6000 system!

David Barnes talking about Taligent and Workplace/OS, because why not transplant your current computing environment on top of an environment that runs all environments that will be shipping Real Soon Now for … reasons?

WWDC 1997 Q&A: What’s holding back CHRP? Is Apple afraid of (gasp) being undercut by Macintosh clone makers?

clabretro: RS/6000 startup sequence and 1990s GeoCities animé fan page font in the System Management Services console. Installing and running CorelDraw, Netscape 1.0, and Quake on an RS/6000.

Remnants of CHRP in the AIX netinstall configuration assistant.

Running Windows NT on a G3? More likely than you think.

Cameron Kaiser’s extremely detailed look at Netware Server on a Power Mac 6100. How about that artwork?

That weird point in time where the highest performance AppleShare solution was a giant Apple box running AIX.

Get a load of the chonky Motorola PowerStack systems.


Derek hosts Mac Folklore Radio, a podcast that serves as a warm, nostalgic conversation about the machines that defined personal computing for a generation. This isn't a dry technical history, but rather a collection of stories, memories, and shared experiences centered on the Macintosh ecosystem from its early beige-box days through the colorful iMac era and beyond. Each episode feels like digging through a box of old software manuals and rediscovering the community, the quirks, and the sheer sense of possibility those computers inspired. You'll hear tales of first setups, beloved and baffling peripherals, the games that consumed hours, and the software that felt like magic. It's crafted specifically for those who lived through it-the users, tinkerers, and enthusiasts who remember the hum of a CRT and the distinct scent of a warm motherboard. Tune in for a dose of genuine, fond reminiscence that functions as comfort food for the Apple-centric soul, preserving the personal side of tech history one story at a time. This podcast is a love letter to the culture built around these machines, celebrating the folklore that official manuals never recorded.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Mac Folklore Radio
Podcast Episodes
KON and BAL's Puzzle Page (1992, 1994) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:31
Original text by Konstantin Othmer and Bruce Leak for Apple’s develop! magazine, May 1992 and June 1994. “These problems are supposed to be tough. If you don’t get a high score, at least you’ll learn interesting Macintos…
Glider 4.0 Reviews (1991) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:48
Game Hall of Fame text by Steven Levy, Macworld January 1992. Review of Glider 4.0 by Toni Thompson, Macworld February 1992. I wonder if that’s the Toni Thompson who did the graphics for the Apple II version of Temple of…
The Desktop Critic Secret Reviewer's Notebook (1996) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:49
Original text by David Pogue, Macworld June 1996. The database review mentioned in this article might be one of these two. Review of the hilariously terrible Brother HL-8 printer and two (yes, two) attempts at Macintosh…
John Calhoun on Casady and Greene (2024) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:35
Original text by John Calhoun. MacScene’s interview with John re: The History of Glider. Part 1, Part 2. Mr. Advisador for the Newton has been revived! Told you it was creepy. Original Newton version. The Computer Chroni…
Charles Piller: Is Apple Serious About Macintosh Clones? (1995) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:03
Actions speak louder than words: a look at Apple’s extremely quiet Mac OS licensing program. Original text by Charles Piller. Macworld Boston 1994, Tim Bajarin: Apple has to either start licensing, or lower their prices.…
Jim Black on John Carmack and Steve Jobs (2018) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:21
Original text by Jim Black. Previous John Carmack episode: The Steve Jobs Rollercoaster. Peter Graffagnino’s appearance at NeXTEVNT 2015. Peter is interviewed by fellow Pixar veteran Michael Johnson. Some of the original…
The Iconoclast - Send In The Clones (1995) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:17
Apple’s licensing approach (ca. 1994-1997) is a bad idea. Original text by Steven Levy, Macworld January 1995. Andy Bechtolscheim quote about SPARC licensing and Macintosh clones: “Sun had a unified business… it wasn’t r…
Wise Guy - 1984 Redux (1994) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:10
How Macintosh could have taken over the world. Original text by Guy Kawasaki, Macworld February 1994. Various 1993ish Apple commercials courtesy of RetroByte.
Steven Levy - One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, ... (1996) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:03
Why does System 7.5 take so long to start up? Original text by Steven Levy, Macworld April 1996. Avoid conflating Moore’s Law with Dennard scaling. 65scribe has an easily-digested summary of Dennard scaling in his extens…
The Desktop Critic - How to Become a Millionare Overnight (1996) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:09
Eight best-selling Mac products that don’t exist–yet. Original text by David Pogue, Macworld April 1996. More on the history of DiskDoubler. John V. Holder’s TakeABreak has recently been uncovered from the depths of arch…