When worlds collide... More from the Mac vs. PC debate: Rumors are going around saying that Apple is going to introduce its own office suite to compete with MS Office. Is it just me, or have we entered a time warp? The last time I remember a meaningful debate between operating systems and office suites, Microsoft had just released Windows 3.0 and the really cool Apple was the Mac IIfx (which was a truly awesome machine, y'know, if you had an extra twelve grand laying around). In fact, I think that one of Apple's truly major missteps back in the early '90's was not recognizing the coming age of commoditization, or at least not responding to it in a meaningful way. Maybe they were ahead of their time, treating the Mac as a high-end consumer electronics product instead of a commodity computing device, but it cost them dearly in terms of market share and consumer mindshare in the ensuing decade.

Now, however, things have changed. Apple seems to be using its resurgence as a high-end consumer electronics company (think iPod, iTunes) to make more of a play for market share as a commodity computer manufacturer (iMac, iBook). If I more well-read, I might say something like "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose", but, you'll pardon my French if I say instead, "Ain't that a kick in the pants?"  ¶ 12:46 AM