Other than the “quality”, which truthfully makes no difference to me (I’m a techie), is there anything Vista or the Mac can do that XP can’t? I take that as a no.

Regarding netbooks, the latest numbers I’ve seen are that 90% of them come with XP, at a cost of $35 a copy. This is a huge source of growth for Microsoft (although some may argue that, if netbooks are replacing real laptops, it is a net loss for Microsoft).

Linux was the default OS when netbooks were introduced, but it is the availability of XP that started to really drive sales.

There’s actually a new kind of “sub-netbook” out there, just starting to hit the US from Canton. They’re under $200, they use a Chinese knockoff of the old MIPS processor. They run some kind of Linux. They allegedly wholesale for $89 in Canton.

Here’s one place to get one. I’m intrigued, I may pick one up to play with.

Or maybe I need a netbook. All I seem to do is use the Office Suite and various web-based applications from blogs to corporate citrix e-mail.

Buzzcut, you really need to spend some time on a Mac using the Apple operating system. The differences are staggering. When I used PC’s, wasted at least an hour a day complaining, re-booting, calling our IT techie, etc. I’ve been using macs in my new business for 10 months and I’ve never had one of those days, nor the need even have the number for let alone call an IT techie. The products just work. Wonderfully intuitive. Brilliantly designed. No viruses. No spyware. No worrying about opening attachments. No lost work product. Etc., etc.

Microsoft is getting killed in the netbook market. And here’s the problem. PC’s cannot compete with Apple on the product quality level and can no longer compete with netbooks on cost. That’s a recipe for disaster. Those Windows’ licensing fees still drive MS’s business model. If that revenue stream begins to dry-up, the company could collapse. Which is not to say that a smaller, leaner MS could not still sell products like the Office suite, probably even better versions; but it is to say that MS’s days as king of the hill will be coming to a screeching halt. MS could very easily become a very small player in the market.

I don’t know a thing about Vista. My computers are old enough that they came with XP (one came with 98, updated with XP over 5 years ago). Work computers are XP.

Is there anything that XP can’t do that Vista (or Apple) can?

On the positive side for MS, it seems like netbooks largely come with XP now. That has to be an explosive market for them.

Glad I opted for XP and not Vista when I bought my lap top 2 years ago.

Industry “buzz” and retail trends can be early indicators of a shift, or they can be meaningless. Back in 1996, Corel was thrilled when WordPerfect for Windows outsold Word for Windows at retail. Looking back, it’s obvious they were fighting and winning the wrong battle.

MS’s problem is that the slippery slope nose-dives fast, it will only take a few Linux-driven machines being sold coupled with Apple’s quickly advancing market-share to do-in MS. Name one new innovative product coming out of MS? It’s humorous that MS and Detroit teamed-up with the Microsoft Sync system they paraded on t.v. last year– here we have the worst in American product-design packaged together and we wonder why they need a bailout. Windows Vista? Not. MS Zune? Not. X-Box? –they actually stole that technology from Apple to, the old Apple operating system, but it’s now been passed by too. Outlook? Please. Windows Explorer? Garbage, even PC owners replace it with the free Firefox. Etc., etc., etc.

MS has lots of money and plenty of time to re-structure and re-focus. But that cannot happen with Balmer at the helm.