As speculation about the exact nature of the much-ballyhooed "Columbus" project continues, Mac OS Rumors adds another possibility to the pile. According to one of their Apple sources, the project certainly exists-- but it's actually the Mac NC. That would make a certain amount of sense, given the similarities in the rumors. More than likely, the so-called "Columbus" project spans many form factors and functions; we tend to think that it's the whole "thin client" shebang which will encompass NC's, Newton-replacing handhelds, set-top boxes, eMate-style media players, etc. all running Allegro Lite. That's just our own little opinion. Regardless, we're particularly glad to hear that "Apple isn't interested in another Pippin." It's always a hopeful sign when a multibillion-dollar company can learn from at least one of its horrible, twisted, screaming car-wreck-style mistakes.

Rumors' source also claims that the project is not actually code-named "Columbus--" a fact which would make faithful viewers like Jim Crittenden very happy indeed. In Jim's own words:

As a teacher of students of the Navajo Nation, whose district has literally hundreds of Apple computers (Hello!! We're talking about a serious cyber-presence out here), I am willing to bet that if Apple goes through with a project code-named "Columbus", then very soon Apple hardware will become about as popular as Borg implants around here. Maybe Apple should put that in their peacepipe and smoke it!

If you're hungry for Gil Amelio's sleazy tell-all memoir of his "500 Days At Apple" but can't wait for a couple more weeks for it to hit the shelves, a CNET article describes more of the book's content. We're happy to report that it sounds more and more like a bitter account of how he would have accomplished all that Steve Jobs did (and more), if only he had been allowed to stay and continue his term.

For instance, it's pretty widely known that last August's historic Microsoft agreement was initiated by Amelio, but Jobs was the one who finally managed to get it completed. Amelio apparently recounts how he and Bill Gates were locked in a stalemate, in which Amelio refused to make Internet Explorer the Mac's default browser unless Gates committed to releasing a version of Office for Rhapsody. After Amelio got canned, it sounds like Jobs broke the stalemate by agreeing to settle for Office releases for the Mac OS. Of course, given that Rhapsody is now primarily a server OS and the Mac OS is slated to receive many of Rhapsody's most important OS features, Jobs may have accomplished pretty much what Amelio wanted by simply playing semantics.

Of course, the really scary stuff is reading how Amelio wanted to base the next-generation Mac OS on Windows NT. What he calls a "least popular opinion" we would have to term "platform suicide." We're thanking our lucky stars that the move was blocked by Microsoft's refusal to port NT to the Mac hardware platform. (We never thought we'd be thankful for a Microsoft decision not to port...)

Hmmm, sounds like Jobs' decision not to become Apple's permanent CEO position wasn't quite as firm as we've been led to believe, at least if Business Week is to be trusted. A recent article claims that Steve has gone back to the board and asked for their best offer at least a couple of times, and has left them hanging on the decision.

According to Business Week, the board would still be quite happy for Jobs to take the post, but they can't wait any longer for a decision. They have a CEO candidate ready to leap in on the condition that Jobs leaves the board, and they are expected to make Jobs one last offer this coming Tuesday. And what an offer it is-- 8% of the whole company. But even though they'd like him to take the job, they aren't at all sure how long he's actually stay if he took it, given how long it's taken him just to make a decision. So they're considering hiring a very strong second-hand man just in case.

If he's really still considering signing on permanently (and has been all this time), that certainly explains why he's always so touchy about the CEO hunt. Recall, for instance, the time he walked out on a CNBC interview when the issue was raised. Personally, we at AtAT still hope he stays. It appears that we may know as early as the end of next week. Stay tuned.