How the Intel Version of Mac OS X Originated

Kim Scheinberg, wife of a longtime Apple engineer, describes how her husband became responsible for making OS X on Intel a reality, in an interesting post on Quora.

Scheinberg and her husband John wanted to move to the East Coast to live near their parents while raising their new son. In order to make the move possible, John had to take a demotion to telecommute. His idea for an independent project was an Intel version of OS X.

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In December 2001, Joe tells JK, "I need to justify your salary in my budget. Show me what you're working on." At this point, JK has three PCs in his office at Apple, and another three in the office at home, all sold to him by a friend who sells custom built PCs (can't order them through the usual Apple channels because no one in the company knows what he's working on). All are running the Mac OS.


In JK's office, Joe watches in amazement as JK boots up an Intel PC and up on the screen comes the familiar 'Welcome to Macintosh'. Joe pauses, silent for a moment, then says, "I'll be right back." He comes back a few minutes later with Bertrand Serlet.

Max (our 1-year-old) and I were in the office when this happened because I was picking JK up from work. Bertrand walks in, watches the PC boot up, and says to JK, "How long would it take you to get this running on a (Sony) Vaio?" JK replies, "Not long" and Bertrand says, "Two weeks? Three?"

JK said more like two *hours*. Three hours, tops.

Bertrand tells JK to go to Fry's (the famous West Coast computer chain) and buy the top of the line, most expensive Vaio they have. So off JK, Max and I go to Frys. We return to Apple less than an hour later. By 7:30 that evening, the Vaio is running the Mac OS. [My husband disputes my memory of this and says that Matt Watson bought the Vaio. Maybe Matt will chime in.]


The next morning, Steve Jobs is on a plane to Japan to meet with the President of Sony.
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You can read the full story at the link below...

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