With MacWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today all running stories on the subject, it appears that the discussions between Apple Computer Inc and Be Inc that are expected to culminate in Apple adopting BeOS or parts of it for its future desktop operating system are coming to the boil. Apple reportedly plans to merge the microkernel from Mac OS 8 formerly code-named Copland with the BeOS application model, with late summer 1997 seen as the earliest possible time for delivery of the hybrid operating system. Apple apparently plans to add key System 7.5 services to the new operating environment gradually. The combination of the microkernel and BeOS application programming interfaces sacrifices compatibility with current Mac applications, but buys speed, stability, object- orientation, pre-emptive multi-tasking, symmetric multiprocessing, multithreading and protected memory. Jean-Louis Gassee, founder and chief executive of Be declined to comment on the reports. The Chronicle believes Apple is closer to completing a deal to buy Be and would pay up to $100m.
