Gates wanted to use Mac OS for clones in '85

In a chilling memo to John Sculley (remember him?) back in 1985, Bill Gates pretty much pleaded with Apple to license their OS to prevent obsolesence. At least, according to an uncredited and unexplained page on Dave Winer's pages somewhere...

If I may be selective in my quoting, allow me to pull a few little nuggets out of Gates' explanation as to why the Mac hadn't become a standard:

"a. Since there is no 'competition' to Apple from 'Mac-compatible' manufacturers, corporations consider it risky to be locked into the Mac, for reasons of price AND choice."

"c. Recent negative publicity about Apple hinders the credibility of the Macintosh as a long term contender in the personal computer market."

"f. Nationalistic pressures in European countries often force foreign to consumers [sic] choose local manufacturers. Europeans have local suppliers of the IBM architecture, but not Apple. Apple will lose ground in Europe as was recently exhibited in France."

Bill G's solution? "Apple should license Macintosh technology to 3-5 significant manufacturers for the development of 'Mac Compatibles'" which he then goes on to recommend such heavyweights (at the time) as AT&T, Wang, and DEC. I probably would have picked up a WangMac.