Fry’s and Intel Macs ⇥ quora.com
The news tonight that Fry’s Electronics will be closing forever reminded me of this story posted to Quora in 2012.
Arnold Kim of MacRumors:
According to Kim Scheinberg, she and her husband John Kullmann had decided to move back to the east coast in 2000. In order to make the move, Kullmann had to work on a more independent project at Apple. Ultimately, he started work on an Intel version of Mac OS X. Eighteen months later, in December 2001, his boss asks him to show him what he’s been working on.
In JK’s office, Joe watches in amazement as JK boots up an Intel PC and up on the screen comes the familiar ‘Welcome to Macintosh’.
Joe pauses, silent for a moment, then says, “I’ll be right back.”
He comes back a few minutes later with Bertrand Serlet.
Max (our 1-year-old) and I were in the office when this happened because I was picking JK up from work. Bertrand walks in, watches the PC boot up, and says to JK, “How long would it take you to get this running on a (Sony) Vaio?” JK replies, “Not long” and Bertrand says, “Two weeks? Three?”
JK said more like two *hours*. Three hours, tops.
Bertrand tells JK to go to Fry’s (the famous West Coast computer chain) and buy the top of the line, most expensive Vaio they have. So off JK, Max and I go to Frys. We return to Apple less than an hour later. By 7:30 that evening, the Vaio is running the Mac OS. [My husband disputes my memory of this and says that Matt Watson bought the Vaio. Maybe Matt will chime in.]
I’m Canadian; this story is my only association with Fry’s. From what I’ve seen of the memories that have been posted across the web tonight, it held a special place in the hearts of many.