But the iTunes deal happened after Jobs returned to Apple in 1996. In the mid-1990s, Jobs was largely absent from the Mac universe, and Apple's internal warfare intensified. During a succession of CEOs who tried to make Apple like every other PC maker -- John Sculley, Michael Spindler, and Gil Amelio -- the Apple engineers started to fight with management, not just each other. It became vicious. Sculley was forced out, the former Pepsi exec dismissed as too much centered on image than substance. Spindler took over as CEO, after having worked through the ranks of Apple's European arm. He made the decision to drop the Motorola 680x0 line of processors in favor of IBM's then-new PowerPC, which gave Apple a new boost of enthusiasm among both the engineers and the user base.

But the war over the "PC-fication" of the Mac got worse under Spindler's regime, and he soon lost control. Apple brought in Amelio, a respected exec from National Semiconductor who tried to bring in adult supervision such as former IBM exec Ellen Hancock. Amelio authorized Motorola and the IBM-backed Power Computing to make the first Mac clones, a move that was meant to place the Mac crown jewel in hands other than Apple's, as Apple's warfare had hit a point where the company's very viability was in question. At the same time, the efforts to create a replacement OS for the Mac's System 8 were failing, leaving Apple without a long-term platform.

The engineers essentially closed ranks and shut Amelio out, making him and his lieutenants leaders in name only. Amelio then did something surprisingly canny: He turned to Jobs as an adviser, then bought Jobs' NextStep OS as the basis for a new Mac OS. Jobs's public return to Apple in early 1997 caused near-messianic waves of fervor and hope among the user community.

Amelio's reward for bringing Jobs back was to lose his job in a coup that Jobs led six months later.

I remember those times vividly, as I was a leading proponent of the clone effort, given my fears that Apple would die and take the Mac with it. I reworked the Macworld Expo program for August 1997 to showcase the major clone makers in the keynote address -- a slot that had been historically reserved for Apple. We made the keynote a two-part affair: Macworld columnist David Pogue (now at the New York Times) and I presented the first half of the opening keynote about the clones and gave Apple the second half.