Quote of the day:
"I can't walk into Wal-Mart and buy Mac software. I'm no fan of Microsoft ... but in terms of practicality, hey, I frequently buy my software at the warehouse clubs, and let's face it, they generally don't sell to the Apple trade." -- Reader "Perfesser Bear" on the InformationWeek blog

1. Editor's Note: Hello Windows Vista, Goodbye PC

Microsoft's New York City bash on Monday to mark the official, it's really, really here, introduction of the consumer version of Windows Vista will be the last "operating system as event" the PC world will ever witness.

The reason is obvious: with Vista, Microsoft has taken the monolithic OS just about as far as it can go. With dual-core processors and systems software stuffed to the gills with features, there's not much left on the table to be added in future iterations.

In software terms, there are two interesting trends, which underscore Vista's probable place as Microsoft's high operating system watermark. First, Vista has essentially—and at long last—brought most of the features of Apple's Mac OS X to the Wintel platform. (Widgets/Gadgets, anyone?)

Secondly, Linux has effectively disintermediated expensive software vendors like Microsoft. For Microsoft, it seems to me that the only real question going forward is, will the company's fate mirror more closely that of DEC (Digital Equipment Corp., to readers under 40), or of IBM? Let us know what you think at my blog entry.

Alexander Wolfe
awolfe@cmp.com
www.informationweek.com