Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Boycott Apple
     
        Some time before 1989, {Apple Computer, Inc.} started a
        lawsuit against {Hewlett-Packard} and {Microsoft}, claiming
        they had breeched Apple's {copyright} on the {look and feel}
        of the {Macintosh user interface}.  In December 1989, {Xerox}
        failed to sue {Apple Computer}, claiming that the software for
        Apple's {Lisa} computer and {Macintosh} {Finder}, both
        copyrighted in 1987, were derived from two {Xerox} programs:
        {Smalltalk}, developed in the mid-1970s and {Star},
        copyrighted in 1981.
     
        Apple wanted to stop people from writing any program that
        worked even vaguely like a {Macintosh}.  If such {look and
        feel} lawsuits succeed they could 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.  Apple's reputation as a force for progress
        came from having made better computers; but The {League for
        Programming Freedom} believed that Apple wanted to make all
        non-Apple computers worse.  They therefore campaigned to
        discourage people from using Apple products or working for
        Apple or any other company threatening similar obstructionist
        tactics (e.g. {Lotus} and {Xerox}).
     
        Because of this boycott the {Free Software Foundation} for a
        long time didn't support {Macintosh} {Unix} in their software.
        In 1995, the LPF and the FSF decided to end the boycott.
     
        [Dates?  Other events?  Why did Xerox's case against Apple
        fail?]
     
        (1995-04-18)