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The Mac has become the new Apple IIe.

No, but Windows Vista has become the next Microsoft "Bob". Vista is low-quality crap. Most everyone at Microsoft (except Bill Gates) knows it - but they don't care.

The Windows franchise is eroding, and competitors like Apple and Linux are gaining. Vista is years behind Mac OS X 10.4 in quality and innovation - and Apple has another major OS release coming soon that will embarrass Microsoft again.

Paul Kedrosky got it exactly right in his article a couple of days ago (Wall Street Journal - "Hasta la Vista") - Vista is too little, too late.

Now Microsoft is talking about their next big version of Windows scheduled for release in 2009 - or 2011 or 2012, who knows when they'll actually ship the thing? Maybe they'll finally get some of the stuff they originally promised would be in Vista years ago, like WinFS and NGSCB. Or maybe they'll just recommend that Windows users migrate to XBox.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is shifting their focus away from operating systems - to competing against Google on advertising and search engines. That's what the MS engineers are focused on now.

Through incompetence and mismanagement, Microsoft is headed toward a spectacular train wreck in the years to come. It will be sad to watch. Fortunately, Apple and Linux have a bright future and will be a viable alternative to the once-great Windows empire.

Now Microsoft is talking about their next big version of Windows scheduled for release in 2009 - or 2011 or 2012, who knows when they'll actually ship the thing? Maybe they'll finally get some of the stuff they originally promised would be in Vista years ago, like WinFS and NGSCB. Or maybe they'll just recommend that Windows users migrate to XBox.

So it's the 'most secure OS in history' according to Gates on launch day. The same day, they released six Vista security updates.

A few days later, they announce Vista SP1 later this year to fix its half-baked code. The DirectX 10 gaming they promised us was broken on the driver for the only real DX10 card, Nvidia's 8800. Both ATI and Nvidia are complaining that the new hardware and driver requirements will make drivers harder to write (more expensive) and board design more expensive too. And all the DRM and hardware design changes were required to protect HD-DVD/BlueRay content which was already broken (in 6 weeks) before Vista even came out. Both ATI and Nvida and game companies are telling the industry that the first DX10 games won't even arrive until mid-2008 which isn't that long before Vienna.

Beyond that, the Xbox 360 poses a threat to Microsoft's justification for all the DX10 stuff in Vista. There won't be many people buying Xbox games who will turn around and buy the fancy DX10 versions again for Vista in 2008. I think Xbox 360 and PS3 and HDDVD/Blueray stunt the potential for massive growth in marketshare or mindshare for Vista.

I don't have anything nice to say about Vista. I've even pointed out it's roll out was an abject failure and embarrassment for MS.

But Mac users are just so damned tweakable, it's hard to resist the fun!

I don't think most of them know a Mac is only a computer. It's not like it was something cool. It's not like it was a Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura S2000. A Mac is essentially a PC that can run OS X. And that's about it.