Cupertino, CA /DenounceNewswire/ -- 10 September 2002 -- Apple Computer announced today that starting at 12:01am on January 1, 2003, all Macintosh computers -- new and old -- must have MacOS X installed and running or they will not function. All software applications not written for MacOS X will cease to run as of that date.

A few years ago, Apple quietly began shipping a special version of the Macintosh ROM chips built into every Mac. These ROMs contain special microcode that will be activated on January 1st and will detect whether a Mac is running the current operating system or not. If it is not, the machine will shut down and refuse to boot again until it detects a MacOS X installation CD-ROM in the CD drive.

"We want all of our users and third-party developers to switch to MacOS X once and for all," says Steven P. Jobs, CEO of Apple. "I wasn't happy with the rate of adoption so we have implemented this program to force users to upgrade or hit the road."

At the May Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, CA, Jobs berated an audience estimated at 140 by displaying a Mac OS 9 product box in a coffin with funereal music playing over the PA system. "If you're still developing for something other than OS X," he warned the crowd, "cut it out right now, or I will personally see to it that you are removed from the Apple Developer Program."

Apple's "Get With the Program" program is intended to achieve 100% market penetration by the end of the first week of January 2003. To remind non- MacOS X users to upgrade, Apple will immediately commence sending a recorded personal video message from Steve Jobs to each and every laggard user. The message, stored as a 27-mb QuickTime file, will be sent each hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from now until December 31st. Each email will have a different subject and sender to hamper attempts by users at filtering the message as spam.

"We are serious. Either get with it, or get lost," says Jobs.

About Apple Computer
Apple Computer is wholly-owned subsidiary of NeXT Inc, which acquired the ailing hardware company in 1997 and forced it to abandong the old MacOS and convert NeXTSTEP to MacOS X. Users have been reluctant to upgrade to the flashy new Unix-based operating system, resulting in desperate measures such as the "Get With the Program" program.