If you’re a long-time Apple user, you certainly remember MacOS (not macOS). By the 90s, Apple admitted that the OS was getting a bit stale and started making plans to upgrade to something a bit more in-line with then-modern OS conveniences and features.

The most promising? Copland and the promised follow-up Gershwin.

The problem: Apple was in serious dysfunction at the time. Apple had just allowed hardware clones and it seemed like CEOs kept coming and going. Copland, and Gershwin by extension, kept falling further and further behind. Eventually it was canceled when it was determined that Copland could never ship. Apple purchased NeXT and while that would prove a good idea in the years to come, uncertainty prevailed in this moment. It certainly stoked at least some fear among the Apple faithful. Would the company survive? Or should they shut it down?

Meanwhile, Jean-Louis Gassée’s Be starting tempting user’s with their new OS, one designed to lure Apple users. Would it work?

No, it wouldn’t and it didn’t. But some of us were tempted, weren’t we?

From the Australian MacUser February 1997 user comes “Plan Be.”