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This article seems to be written by somebody who "...wasn't there." I have worked on Macs since 1983 (pre-release models at U of Chicago) and was a Mac administrator up into the early '90s. I also was a PC administrator and resource specialist, as well as dabbling over the years in CPMs, and a touch of Unix and Linux. Today I oversee a mixed environment at a publishing company but spend most of my time in W2K (no XP here).

There is plenty of room for more than one hardware platform/operating system.

Macintoshes had many good features, but the Spindler/Scully years were a wreck. Copland and Quickdraw GX were costly mistakes that Apple could barely afford. The Motorola 680x0 CPUs ran out of gas at the wrong time for Apple.

They might have been able to survive a high priced base unit, but they could not keep 10% market share (which at one point was higher than any individual manuafacturer) with a high priced base unit that STILL needed upgrades to sing. (For instance, a base Mac SE/30 running multifinder in system 6 multitasked better than a DOS based PC, and could access 4MB easily, but the base model came populated with 4 256K modules, with no empties. The old 90 day warranty wasn't too attractive either. Some products always ran better on a PC (eg almost any PC database program versus 4D or FileMaker Pro on Mac).

Steve Jobs sabotaged efforts to move Macs into the corporation because he not only forbade the software to function like the DOS counterparts, but even made easy file-sharing impossible (e.g. Lotus Jazz, dBase Mac).

Apple has come to the party late with true pre-emptive mulittasking. They have actually put some of the bloat in the OS that makes it look MORE like Windows.

On the other hand, there IS something to be said for having the OS and hardware come from the same company. It can mean fewer compatibility issues. It does drive better technology (e.g. USB languished on PC motherboards while MS took its time implementing. Apple came out with the iMac wihich relied exclusively on USB for almost all peripherals.)

What this all means is that Windows has some good features, MacOS has some good features, and Linux has some good features. All would do well to strive for interoperability. I drive an old Chrysler, my wife drives a Ford Aerostar minivan, and others drive Toyotas and pickup trucks and Corvettes. There is a use for all, and one being good does not make the others bad.