After Mac the Knife had hinted at such a thing a few weeks ago, we mentioned that certain Wintel manufacturers are reportedly planning to hawk their wares at next month's MacWorld Expo, in hopes of pulling Mac users over to the Dark Side of the Force. At the time, we questioned the wisdom (though not the bravery) of any Wintel company willing to brave the staunch and often fanatical devotion of Mac users gathered en masse on their own home turf. The Knife didn't name names, but MacWEEK now has more info, and the scene shouldn't be as bloody as once presaged.

Of the two PC makers who will attend the Expo, Intergraph Computer Systems is the lesser-known. They will be showing their ExtremeZ line of 300 MHz Pentium II workstations, optimized for graphics work in a prepress environment, though they are not being sold as replacements for Macs, per se. These systems are being touted as MacFriendly (!), with AppleTalk capability and other built-in utilities to allow the systems to "integrate" into a Mac-standardized situation. We find it amusing that in the Bizarro world of graphics and prepress, it's the Wintel systems that have to offer easy integration... ;-)

The bigger fish in this pond is Digital, who isn't even going to have a booth. Instead, they are launching their sneak attack by displaying their NT-based workstations in other companies' booths, and by directing "interested users" to a nearby hotel suite. Digital may be leaping feet-first into the Mac-dominated graphics world, but they're too smart to alienate potential converts with a large dog and pony show. And by targeting Apple's core market after giving up their Alpha chip to Intel, we're starting to think that Digital may become the biggest thorn in Apple's side. Keep an eye on them.

Apple, on the other hand, has to try to stem the tide of defection to NT systems in the graphics world. Way back in August, Steve Jobs identified content creation as one of the Mac's two strongholds, and pledged that Apple would so everything it could to strengthen its advantage there. Well, it's more than four months later, and we're still waiting for a concrete implementation of that pledge. If Intergraph and Digital are providing NT systems tuned for graphics and bundled with applications, where are the Macs that do the same?

Power Computing, the hardest-hit casualty in the Great Clone Wars of 1997, plans to rise from its own ashes next year, according tothe Austin-American Statesman. CEO Steven Kahng wants to leap full-force into the Wintel battefield, unencumbered by any ties to Apple.

After fighting Apple for months over the right to cloning independence, Power eventually succumbed to Apple's continued refusal to certify new Mac models based on CHRP or the G3 chip. Power, unable to ship its new PowerTower Pro G3 and claiming that Apple's proposed Mac OS 8 license fees would kill the company, finally consented to sell the Mac OS portion of its business back to Apple-- thus marking the turning point in the largest civil war in Mac history. That deal was recently approved by the Department of Justice and could close within days. While the deal was being reviewed, Power sold off its remaining Mac clone inventory to exit the Mac business entirely by year's end. Its first foray into the Wintel world, the PowerTrip notebook, met with dismal failure, only selling a thousand units or so. Now Power has shut down operations and is liquidating all of their equipment in an online auction, and once the final Apple buyout goes through, Power Computing will be no more.

That defeat hasn't dampened Steven Kahng's spirits, however. He is negotiating with U.S. and Asian companies for the $50 to $100 million he needs to launch a new company, also bearing the Power Computing name, which he intends to compete with giants Dell and Gateway 2000. Talk about a David and Goliath scenario. We at AtAT wish him all the best, and we'll miss Power's presence in the Mac arena.

And while NT continues its threat to Apple in the professional graphics arena, Microsoft's general-use/consumer operating system prepares to emerge as Windows 97 98. Not counting potential setbacks that may arise as a result of the ongoing Department of Justice flap, Microsoft hopes to ship the updated OS before the middle of next year.

Now, we constantly encounter claims that Windows 95 is better than the Mac OS because of its protected memory and crash-protection. But Windows 95, in actuality, crashes. A lot. So users are hoping for a more reliable version of crash-protection in Windows 98-- and it appears that Microsoft has found one, if the mid-beta version that was shown at Internet World is any indication. Multiple Mac OS Rumors sources report that Microsoft had two Win98 systems running side-by-side, and when a crash occurred (which was a frequent event), the demonstrator would switch to the other machine while the first one rebooted-- and pray that that system didn't crash before the first one came back up.

So there you have it: Windows 98's new crash-protection. Run two systems, and switch every time you have to reboot. Of course we're being facetious, and Microsoft has six months to improve stability, but we bet the Microsoft/Intel marketing juggernauts could actually sell dual-system crash protection as a feature. They'd sell twice as many machines, after all...