Microsoft Corp on Friday finally got around to saying what we have all known for a month or so: that it plans to phase out its development of Windows NT for the PowerPC architecture, in response to decreasing demand for PowerPC systems it adds, unable to resist delivering a kick to IBM Corp. It promises to continue offering technical support to its customers using Windows NT 4.0 on the PowerPC. However, the announcement looks as if it has been overtaken by events, because PC Week was told by then chief operating officer Marco Landi that Apple Computer Inc now definitely does want to support NT on its Deep Dish servers, and has been banging on Microsoft’s door asking it what it would take to keep Windows NT for PowerPC going. It is also exploring what would be a much less elegant co-processor approach with Intel Corp; the Deep Dish servers currently offer AIX and Mac OS support, with Solaris support also in the plan, but only after NT is running.