from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Boycott Apple
Some time before 1989, {Apple Computer, Inc.} started a
lawsuit against {Hewlett-Packard} and {Microsoft}, claiming
they had breeched Apple's {copyright} on the {look and feel}
of the {Macintosh user interface}. In December 1989, {Xerox}
failed to sue {Apple Computer}, claiming that the software for
Apple's {Lisa} computer and {Macintosh} {Finder}, both
copyrighted in 1987, were derived from two {Xerox} programs:
{Smalltalk}, developed in the mid-1970s and {Star},
copyrighted in 1981.
Apple wanted to stop people from writing any program that
worked even vaguely like a {Macintosh}. If such {look and
feel} lawsuits succeed they could put an end to {free
software} that could substitute for commercial software.
In the weeks after the suit was filed, {Usenet} reverberated
with condemnation for Apple. {GNU} supporters {Richard
Stallman}, {John Gilmore}, and Paul Rubin decided to take
action against Apple. Apple's reputation as a force for
progress came from having made better computers; but The
{League for Programming Freedom} believed that Apple wanted to
make all non-Apple computers worse. They therefore campaigned
to discourage people from using Apple products or working for
Apple or any other company threatening similar obstructionist
tactics (e.g. {Lotus} and {Xerox}).
Because of this boycott the {Free Software Foundation} for a
long time didn't support {Macintosh} {Unix} in their software.
In 1995, the LPF and the FSF decided to end the boycott.
[Dates? Other events? Why did Xerox's case against Apple
fail?]
(1995-04-18)