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+@unnumbered Special Report: Apple's New Look and Feel
+
+You might have read about the new look-and-feel copyright lawsuit,
+Apple vs. Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.  Apple claims the power to
+stop people from writing any program that works even vaguely like a
+Macintosh.  If they and other look-and-feel plaintiffs triumph, they
+will use this new power over the public to put an end to free software
+that could substitute for commercial software.
+
+In the weeks after the suit was filed, USENET reverberated with
+condemnation for Apple.  GNU supporters Richard Stallman, John Gilmore, and
+Paul Rubin decided to take action against Apple's no-longer-deserved
+reputation as a force for progress.  Apple's reputation comes from having
+made better computers; but now, Apple is working to make all non-Apple
+computers worse.  If this deprives the public of the future work of many
+companies, the harm done would be many times the good that any one company
+does.  Our hope was that if the user community realizes how destructive
+Apple's present actions are, Apple would lose customers and have more
+trouble finding employees.
+
+Our method of action was to print 5000 buttons that say ``Keep Your Lawyers
+Off My Computer'' and hand them out at the West Coast Computer Faire.  The
+center of the button shows the rainbow-apple logo with a Gigeresque mouth
+full of ferocious teeth.  The picture was drawn by Etienne Suvasa, who also
+drew the cover for the GNU Emacs manual.  We call the picture ``Apple's New
+Look and Feel''.
+
+We gave out nearly 4000 buttons at the show (saving the rest for
+afterwards).  The result was a great success: the extent of anger at Apple
+was apparent to everyone at the show.  Many of the invited speakers at the
+show wore our buttons, spoke about them, or even waved them from the
+podium.  The press noticed this: at least one Macintosh user's magazine
+carried a photo of the button afterwards.
+
+Some of you may be considering using, buying, or recommending Macintoshes;
+you might even be writing programs for them or thinking about it.  Please
+think twice and look for an alternative.  Doing those things means more
+success for Apple, and this could encourage Apple to persist in its
+aggression.  It also encourages other companies to try similar
+obstructionism.
+
+[It is because of this boycott that we don't include support for Macintosh
+Unix in GNU software.]
+
+You might think that your current project ``needs'' a Macintosh now.  If
+you find yourself thinking this way, consider the far future.  You probably
+plan to be alive a year or two from now, and working on some other project.
+You will want to get good computers for that, too.  But an Apple monopoly
+could easily make the price of such computers at that time several times
+what it would otherwise be.  Your decision to use some other kind of
+machine, or to defer your purchases now, might make sure that the machines
+your next project needs are affordable when you need them.
+
+Newspapers report that Macintosh clones will be available soon.  If
+you must buy a Macintosh-like machine, buy a clone.  Don't feed the
+lawyers!