Star Trek project

Star Trek is the code name which was given to a secret prototype project, running a port of Mac OS 7 and its applications on Intel-compatible x86 personal computers. The project, starting in February 1992, was conceived in collaboration between Apple Computer, who provided the majority of engineers, and Novell, who at the time was one of the leaders of cross-platform file-servers. The plan was that Novell would market the resulting OS as a challenge to Microsoft Windows, but the project was discontinued in 1993 and never released, although components were reused in other projects.

The impetus for the creation of the Star Trek project began out of Novell's desire to increase its competition against the monopoly of Microsoft and its DOS-based Windows products. Eventually convicted many years later of illegal monopoly status, Novell had called Microsoft's presence "predatory" and the US Department of Justice had called it "exclusionary" and "unlawful". Novell's first idea to extend its desktop presence with a graphical computing environment was to adapt Digital Research's GEM desktop environment, but Novell's legal department rejected this due to apprehension of a possible legal response from Apple, so the company went directly to Apple. With shared concerns in the anti-competitive marketplace, Intel's CEO Andy Grove supported the two companies in launching their joint project Star Trek on February 14, 1992 (Valentine's Day).

Apple set a deadline of October 31, 1992 (Halloween Day), promising the engineering team members a performance bonus of a large cash award and a vacation in Cancun, Mexico. Of the project, team member Fred Monroe later reflected, "We worked like dogs. It was some of the most fun I’ve had working".

Achieving their deadline goal and receiving their bonuses, the developers eventually reached a point where they could boot an Intel 486 PC (with very specific hardware) into System 7.1, and its on-screen appearance was indistinguishable from a Mac. However, every program would then need to be ported to the new x86 architecture to run. It was supposed that programs could be ported with little effort because Apple developed equivalent headers for x86.

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