[Ti] [OT] Micro$oft acquires Virtual PC

[b]

According to T.L.Miller:

>If there were no VPC and users who had to run PC apps. would likely ditch
>the Mac. Controlling VPC allows MS to hold a high card if Apple gets too
>uppity. The volume MS gets from the copies of Windows that come w/ VPC is
>likely to be chump-change to them

So, users would buy an old 386 to run Win2k, already installed. How's 
that going to aid MS in any way? They don't give a s**t which 'box' 
you run their stuff on.

Besides, Apple isn't competition to monopolistic MS. MS owns a piece 
of Apple. Why? Two reasons: One, it's profitable. In the last five 
years an equal investment in the stock of Apple and MS has been more 
profitable on the Apple stock. And Two, Apple is doing the R&D for 
the industry, and their rabid user-base makes an ideal test market 
for new technology, services, etc, that the larger companies need, in 
order to see how things 'fly' before committing their own resources 
to new tech, services, etc.

And of course, with Linux, OpenSource, etc, breathing down their 
necks, Microsoft has far larger concerns than Apple, to worry about. 
Like, Asian, African, and European negative reaction to US-MS 
monopoly of industry and government software and 
security/spyware/backdoor/encryption/sovereignty issues, for starters.

It's a long ballgame, *maybe* we're in the second inning. I'm not 
worried about all that nearly as much as the REAL issues, such as 
when the Finder will get a little 'snappier', the 'lag time' 
[latency] of OS reactions to mouse-downs, etc. <Laughs>

~flipper