[jksmith]

That's the increasingly fragile business model though. MSFT and generic PC makers are like siamese twins who can't be separated. The makers depend on MSFT to create new versions which require new hardware. In turn, MSFT gets exclusive distribution licenses from the makers.

If MSFT screws the product, as with Vista, the makers suffer the fallout because the market doesn't buy their latest generic plastic. Apple managed to identify this rotating gimmick early on, and went down the proprietary hardware path because it was their only choice. And look who has the market attention now.

So I'd say that the makers are a bit pissed right now that MSFT didn't hold up their end of the deal. They know that all the crap they sell is generally indistinguishable, but that didn't matter because MSFT would provide them with a mechanism for recurring income that was better than just waiting for the plastic to simply wear out.

And with MSFT depending on thousands of licenses just to keep the lights on, I'd say the next few years are going to be interesting for the siamese twins.

With my MacBook Pro, and my dual Dec Alpha box that I plan to put Genera on, I think I'll just sit back and watch.