Office Workstations Limited

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Office Workstations Limited (OWL) was a British software company based in Edinburgh.

OWL was founded in 1984 by five former employees of ICL (Ian Ritchie, Stuart Harper, Gordon Dougan, Richard Stonehouse and Dave MacLaren) who had previously worked at ICL's Scottish Development Centre at Dalkeith Palace until its closure the previous year.

The following year (1985), OWL International Inc., a United States subsidiary, was formed in Seattle. The American subsidiary, then headed by ex-Microsoft executive Alan M. Boyd achieved considerable attention (particularly from Esther Dyson who understood its potential) but was eventually sidelined when Apple elected to bundle their Hypercard product free with every Macintosh.^{[citation needed]} This caused considerable consternation amongst Apple's developer community who became wary of Apple's motives for requiring developers to submit product designs for approval.^{[citation needed]}