Apple hands out refunds in OS X row

Apple has reached a tentative settlement in a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company had failed to fully support Mac OS X on some G3-based Macs.

In court documents filed on Tuesday, the Mac maker agreed to refund the $129 purchase price of Mac OS X for customers who bought it for use on certain G3 Macs and have never been able to fully take advantage of it.

Thomas Ferlauto of King & Ferlauto, the Los Angeles-based law firm that brought the class-action suit said the proposed deal offers customers two options.

"If you are completely dissatisfied [with Mac OS X], you can return it and get your money back," Ferlauto said. "If you want to keep OS X, but are kind of annoyed that you don't have full support, you can get [a $25] coupon."

The deal would settle a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in January 2002. The suit claimed that Apple had promised that OS X would be "fully optimised" to run on all G3 machines but charged that such optimisation was not done. As a result of failing to write the necessary drivers, the suit said, performance on older G3s was degraded "so severely that OS X is rendered an unrealistic option."

Apple said in Tuesday's court filing that it "continues to vigorously deny all of the material allegations" of the lawsuit but is willing to settle to avoid the costs of continuing to fight the legal action.

An Apple representative declined to comment further.

The settlement would apply to those who bought early iMacs (Bondi Blue and fruit-coloured models) and older iBooks; the first PowerBook G3 models released (through the one that had a bronze keyboard); the first three Power Mac G3 models; and the Power Mac G3 all-in-one, introduced in April 1998.

To be eligible, people must own or have owned one of those machines and purchased Mac OS X for that computer on or before 15 May 2003.

Ina Fried writes for News.com