Apple and Microsoft
I know the saying goes
"power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
Therefore, many people think if Apple could get the majority share, they would be just like Microsoft.
I don't know. Maybe, but maybe not. Gates and Jobs are different and very complex people. They are also surrounded by many other gifted people, some evil, some nice, some both. Hard to say what would happen.
What I posted is what I would do if I were running Apple. I truely think Apple can win and win big. I think MS has its hands tied because it is a monopoly. Apple should exploit this. iTunes is a good thing. Apple should add more services, more iPod devices, and more software.
What if Adobe decided they were not going to make their software for Mac OS anymore? What if Gates offered them a big payout to make it happen? Adobe could claim to be ticked over FCP or something. Maybe Gates wants Premiere to go head-to-head with Apple's FCP. What would Apple do? See why Apple needs their own software?
Apple users would also suffer from the above scenerio. I haven't sold my soul to Adobe but we do use their software. If they discountined their Apple stuff it would hit my business hard. I would lose money and time invested in Photoshop and Illustrator software for myself and my employees. I have a lot of money in Adobe hardware and software and wish I could be sure they are going to be healthy for a long while. Same for Apple.
Right now, Apple is providing me the best solutions for many of my IT needs. I have 9 PowerMacs, 2 Xserves, 4 Xraids, 3 PCs, and a ton of audio, video, and other electronic gear. Apple is the right tool for many of my computer needs. The PCs meet the rest of my needs. However, the Apple tools work so much better than the PC tools. This is not just some theoretical opinion, it is based on years of work with computers of all kinds. Since Apple solutions perform so well for me, it is logical to wish they could meet more of my needs and that I wish them stability.
Any time one app becomes the only major app in a catagory on an OS, it can be held hostage. This applies to CPUs too, a la Motorola. Apple need to protect itself.
Of course MS is not going to take all this lying down. They will have to innovate or die. They will probably get their act together and we will have good stuff coming out of Redmond. Again, we the end user benefits.
In a way, the Apple vs. Microsoft debate parallels forms of government. Apple is more a dictator model and the PC is more democratic. As long as the dictator is wise and kind, the dictator model wins hands down for simplicity, efficiency, and unity. If democracy is tried by a bunch of selfish greedy fools, it will fail miserably.
The opposite is true too. If a dictator is greedy and sloppy, the people suffer. If the citizens of a democracy are kind and wise, it will work out quite well. (To complete the picture, open source is socialism. We'll see where that one ends up.)
The morale - it is not the form of government that determines which government is best, it is the people in the government and the actions of those people. Applied to the computer world, we should not attack Apple or MS because of the form, but the actions of the people within the system.
I have seen MS abuse its power with monopoly practice. I have seen Apple suffer from bad decisions. I have also seen Apple do some amazing work and have seen much good in the PC side. So the net results are mixed. I have not sold my soul to either side. I just want a functioning government, so to speak, so I can go about my life and work. Right now, I think Jobs and company are on a roll, would like to see them get their market share to 50% and see amazing product coming out of both sides.
I want Apple to be a demagoge and be a good one. But I also want the freedom to walk away to an equally good PC democracy side too. What I really don't want is both sides launching missles at each other, attempting to win the business war, and we the people get nuked.
, I like the idea, WWDC 06?, now it's getting clear why IBM sold the PC unit, there must be a bigger game behind, I can see a big order from universities, research people... now if the program I use would run on OS X... 
