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Apple is more in danger from shrinking shares than anybody else because they stand alone in their standards.

So does Wintel in its "standards." Windows is less of an open standard than OSX. OSX is built on Mach 3.0, FreeBSD 3.3 and OpenSTEP. Intel processors are just as proprietary, or open for that matter, as a PPC G3/G4. In fact the PC world is at a significant disadvantage over the Mac world: it has no single hardware and software provider to make decisions on how the platform evolves. What will happen when PC customers have to start choosing between Itaniums and x86-64? It's going to happen because Macs are slated to begin moving to the 64bit PPC G5 in the next few years. Once that happens the PC world will have no choice but to move to 64bit processors or it will get ripped a new one benchmarkwise by Macs

The keep making their computers more Maccy, which the Apple fans love and they just gobble it up

Actually OSX is a major break from a lot of "Maccy" things. It behaves more like a 3-way cross between Windows, MacOS 9 and UNIX than the original MacOS. A lot of Windows users are shocked at how slick my installation of OSX looks on my 3 year old PowerBook G3 compared to their WindowsXP installation on their 1 year old PCs. The fact that I can run OS X rather well on a 3 year old PowerBook which has only a 333mhz processor and 192MB of Ram says a lot and I point out how old my PB is.

Microsoft's push for DRM/Palladium will alienate a lot of users because it will interfere in their daily activities. Microsoft knows that their "initiative" cannot be accomplished without fundamental changes to the OS. Programs like Winamp won't be able to run because the Winamp crew is known for being very anarchistic. They were the guys that created Gnutella for God's sake. Nothing short of an act of God, a FBI swat team bashing down their office doors or a direct order from the AOLTW brass could get them to not fully support MP3 and Ogg Vorbis even if that means telling Microsoft to take its DRM and shove it up its ass.

As a former Linux user I am realistic enough to know that Linux will never be ready for the average user, especially not since OSX-based systems are pretty cheap, very reliable and easy to use. The only OS that can potentially "save" the PC market is OpenBeOS, however that will take another 1-2 years to get fully into Beta stage.

And about the issue regarding band promotion, there is actually a simple solution: integrate MP3.com into AOL/Compuserve and get it a primetime spot on Yahoo and MSN's music sections. If major bands were to start getting listed there, like say get Creed listed in the alternative/hard rock section they could retool their DBs to monitor every rock band bought by someone who buys from Creed and then list two options on the Creed page: "Full List of Bands Supported By Other Creed Fans" or "Up and Coming Artists Liked by Creed Fans." The former is obviously what it name says and the 2nd list is created by monitoring bands based on activity. Those with consistant sales and strong sales activity during a certain period relative to their size would be promoted in this list. For example a band that has been on for 6 months and has sold 200 copies of its first release online would be listed here since 200 sales in such a short period of time for a new band online as opposed to out of the trunk of the band's car/van or at a gig is pretty good.

WIntel doesn't stand alone in their standards. Dozens of companies make WIntel machines. If one goes away no biggie, remember Pac-Bell? Gone the way I wish Compaq would go, did it hurt the PC market? Not at all. What matters isn't the openness of the standard, it's how much it gets used. The multiple hardware providors mae it stronger, they make the prices cheaper because there's competition, and it discourages goofy sidelines with low interoperability because nobody will write software for it. Hardware and software are evolving plenty fine in PC world, whoever takes the lead drives the force. There's a reason why most new video cards come with a CD full of games, intercorporate cooperation, getting people supporting the hardware before it's even released. Competition makes markets strong.

OSX is classic Mac. Sure some of the look is different, the guts are seriously different but there's no mistaking it for a product of anybody by Apple. As for XP once I turned off that awful faggy blue default color scheme it rocks. They really did take all the cool stuff from NT and stick in 95 and did it well.

Most users aren't even going to find out about Palladium, remember who MS's core audience is, total non-geeks. Actually the changes necessary to the OS for Palladium are pretty small, filetypes are the first few bytes, the initial scan tells the OS what kind of CD is in the drive. Easy stuff. As for Winamp, who cares? Most people use Windows Media Player for just about everything because it plays just about anything.

You're still missing why the internet sales model is doomed. Ask yourself this, why is it that WalMart is the single largest music seller in the world by a serious margin and Amazon is playing keep up with also rans hanging around 5? Why is it that Best Buy devotes a huge section of prime real estate in their stores (it's almost impossible to get in and out without going by) to CDs and on their website CDs are literally below the line and rarely a feature product on the front page? The way people buy music just doesn't coalesce with how puchases are made on the internet. I look up an album probably every month on Amazon, they're handy for finding out if something is in print and what it's price range is going to be, also nice if you don't know enough about the album to find it easily in the store; but then once I've found it I generally go buy it in a real store.