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Even after all this time, Vista continues to have problems. I hope they fix it once and for all.

<gong !!>

MSFT shows 180 Million licenses sold and $60 billion in earnings. Points at AAPL and laughs.

<gong !!>

It is oft pointed that the majority of Windows licenses sold are corporate licenses. 180 Million? Pundits would have you believe corporations are running scared away from Vista. Then, would that nearly all of those 180 million licenses were purchased by *GASP* home (non-corporate) users?

@Raaj

"Pundits would have you believe corporations are running scared away from Vista."

Interestingly, the very same pundits would also tell you (in different articles so nobody will notice) that nobody's buying Vista and all the sales numbers are from corporate licenses.

It's amazing how 180,000,000 copies have been sold despite nobody buying them.

I've done my part: one Vista license (OEM in laptop) which I use maybe 3 hours in a busy week.

Some failures in computing bring in more revenue than others.  This whole "Vista is a failure" meme is rather amazing.

And mostly caused by Windows users, journalists, and bloggers, with lots of help from Microsoft.  I suspect Apple *wishes* they were powerful enough to chip in, but they aren't (on can watch amusing ads without believing them).

Actually, the only place that I have been seeing 'Vista is a failure' is here. Vista is obviously a winner, so why is the whining going on here, because you're perpetuatuating the myth. I have seen one Apple fanboy post such a comment in months, only afteran Apple jab. You know, much of the anti- anything talk on each side is actually counter-jabs. If the initial jabs go away.....

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Why are these commenters focused on Apple?

Because Apple sucks so much.

JamesNT

The sad thing is - what really drives the poor quality of many (not all) of MS's offerings is the inevitability that it will sell tens of millions of copies of windows and office and make billions of dollars because of the monopoly-level profits (80 percent plus).

Seriously, there's not a real dying need to improve the product in these financial circumstances.  Apple, for example, had to make a better widget (for some users) in order to even survive.  That kind of tends to motivate you.

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Despite all the grousing about MSFT products, these are great numbers.  Unfortunately, the earnings quality are not reflected in their stock price.  It would be a good time to buy...except for one potential future event that makes one hesitate.  The acquisition of Yahoo.  Overlay the effects of that acquisition on their business and try to imagine what earnings will look like a year from now.  My crystal ball fogs up when I think of this deal.  I hope Ballmer et al know what they're doing.  

"Unfortunately, the earnings quality are not reflected in their stock price."

This is actually a mystery to me. I mean profitability is so important, and MS has it, yet the stock is actually lower than it was 7 to 10 yrs ago. I just don't understand, with profits that are in the stratosphere.

@DRWAM are you serious?  I would say from mid 2007 to just a few months ago almost any IT news about Vista was bad, true or not it was bad, unless it came from MS.

I mean just two weeks ago Intel said they are not going go with Vista internally because "they saw no value in doing so".

Vista had rough start but I think its not a bad OS now.  I would suggest putting it on only new machines for the best results.

There are many reasons for subpar perf by MSFT stock:

- In the tech realm, the buzz is what fuels speculation. As Jim Cramer puts it, the fab4 of tech used to be MS, Intel, Dell and Cisco. Now the tables have turned, and the tech industry is driven the new fab4 of tech: Apple (some are gonna deny it here !!), RIMM, Google, and Amazon. These are the ones the make the headlines today in the tech news and which all analyst consider as the tech locomotives.

- In the stock market nowadays, the stock prices already reflects the valuation expected by traders. Which means the the prospect is nowadays more important than past perf. which is already included in the stock price. The truth is the future is not as glitzy for MSFT as it used to be. The cash-cow that Win and Office used to be are not as successful in sales as the previous ones. Msft is under performing its rivals in the revenue making areas of Internet ads (Goog) and digital life (Apple) and it shows no signs hope at all.

Msft is not the attractive tech company it used to be both for workers and stock buyers who flock to Apple and Google. It's like a downward spiral from which MS has to come out... with new management maybe...

@Snakedoctor1

"I mean just two weeks ago Intel said they are not going go with Vista internally because "they saw no value in doing so"."

Of course, you know that intel said the same thing when they didn't adopt Windows XP 18 months after it came out, too. Right?

The fact is, intel is not an early adopter. Never have been.

That you care or think it's something unusual kind of proves the point that Vista bashing bares little resemblence to reality.

Guys, these numbers are clear and have a strong value both in absolute and relative terms. Vista is beeing adopted quickly and quicker than Xp at its times. Go read the flood of criticism back in 2001 when Xp came out and you will feel instantly ridicolous (reading the same lame terms such as "resource hog", "windows 200 revisited", "Slow and featureless" and so on) if you have a conscience. If not, well, poor you. Period.

So why all this behind-the-scenes bla-bla?

"sft is not the attractive tech company it used to be both for workers and stock buyers who flock to Apple and Google. It's like a downward spiral from which MS has to come out... with new management maybe..."

It's all a matter of perception. Microsoft continues to be highly profitable and successful, but its products don't generate the kind of buzz that Apple's do (which is to some extent media fueled). Another thing is that it's difficult for any company to maintain its growth rate. Apple has done a good job with some of its products in recent times, but that run won't continue forever and the same media that was quick to label Microsoft dead and boring will do the same to Apple. Do you really think Apple and Google will grow at the same rate forever?

I think this and the figures released earlier showing Vista vs OSX Kitty growth pretty much silenced the few remaining sentient iBoi's on here.

Although Papola might still out do himself and show us how  179million of those licenses were downgraded to XP(you know.... that other Microsoft OS people prefer over OSX Kitty). :p

This really is interesting, and cool, and kind of funny, but Paul I must ad my voice to the others crying out for a little more Vista *content* on here. Interesting things, reviews, tips, etc.

Please don't turn this whole site into an MS/Apple profit chart. You're doing it a lot more than you used to. A bit more Xbox stuff? Some stuff about the upcoming MCE update?

Just to add a little more detail, this is Microsoft's fastest annual growth since 1999 and a 32% increase in revenue per share.

Not bad for a company that's dead in the water, is too big to have any real growth, doesn't get the industry anymore and has nobody buying their "cash cows"

I wonder how many more millions they would have sold if it was half the product they said it was going to be. 180 mil. is less than 3% of the population. Numbers really don't mean a thing. There is a black cloud hanging over Vista. It makes no difference if it is deserved or not, it's there.

Nickelgreen, I do remember reading resource hog statements about vista and the large amount of RAM needed, so I agree with you. The fact that makes the statement lame is that RAM is so cheap, and increased minimum RAM and CPU has been a standard need for all OS'es other the years. So although Vista needs a more robust computer, so what? All computers have more robust hardware simply due to industry improvements. CPU's are faster as are  RAM, vid cards, FSB, etc...so you would get the required minimum hardware anyway. Tiger was not as critized, butu Leopard was close, and I and friends have never had a problem with it. Also, Apple has the luxery of making theri own hardware to keep pace with the increasing needs of the Mac OS. So your point is well taken.

"180 mil. is less than 3% of the population."

What, of total people in the world?  You do know that there are about 1 billion computers running Windows out there, right?  Under your reasoning, even 1 billion would only be about 20% of the population of the world.  So try 18%.

Note:  All numbers are approximate.

Also gotta remember that not all of the XP computers in existance need to be replaced or upgraded with Vista. Eventually they will, but in this economy, people will want to hold off spending. The auto industry [GM] appears affected the same way.

@mikegalos honestly I dont care about Vista one way or the other.  

My point was simply that the was a news story just weeks ago that Intel was not going to Vista, probably ever.  The way the story was worded/spun was in a negative way.  Sorry that was the way it was.  In early May USA today had a big piece on how many large companies are not going to Vista.  

Again I dont really care.  I dont use Vista at home, my corporation wont be going to it either from what I have been told.

Sankedoctor01,

Ok, so then what the heck are you doing reading a pro-Windows blog for then?  

Again, I'm really fed up with anti-WIndows people coming here and just slamming over and over.

I don't go to Apple or Linux blogs and slam those products.

Get a life, move on!

I come here because I like Windows.

I don't hate Apple at all. (I own a Mac mini). But I also don't go to appleinsider.com or macrumors.com and posts slams against Macs all day either.

Get a life a move the *%($# on!

Oh by the way, I've been certified from Apple Chicago office in their network support.

@Snakedoctor1

Nope. Sorry but the story wasn't "Intel was not going to Vista, probably ever" it was "Intel isn't going to Windows Vista right now"

That you remember it the other way just shows either how the story was spun or how you chose to remember it. Only you know which is the case.

@delmont.

All valid questions but you know the answer to 'em all. They can't help themselves.....classic lil brother inferiority complex.

gizmodo.com/.../intel-is-skipping-windows-vista

Well Mike you read and then tell me where is says "isnt going to Vista right now".  I pretty much see skipping Vista in favor of Windows 7?

May I suggest www.rif.org

www.theinquirer.net/.../intel-dumps-vista

bits.blogs.nytimes.com/.../et-tu-intel

@Dipsh t Admin

Haven't you learn Macamatics?

Windows Vista is measured against the entire population of the planet.

Mac is measured against post-graduate cinematography majors

More seriously, you DO tend to see Mac usage done against either US college students or at best with only US sales since the Mac sells even worse outside the US.

Of course, if the the Mac fanatics decide that world population IS the valid measure, we'd see:

The total Macintosh user base is less than one half of one percent of the population

But, then they'd just pat themselves on the back for being part of the elite.

@Snakedoctor1

Three links that all point back to one anonymous rumor in the Inquirer is pretty sad evidence. Check the actual press statements and you'll see it's just "we're not deploying right now".

(Even the ones you cite say the decision is quite possible to change and then move on to conpiracy theories of how Microsoft will somehow bully intel because nobody would ever use Vista without being coerced - apparently something 180,000,000 people missed hearing about)

Delmont how did I come off anti-Windows?  I said I dont care about Vista one way or the other.  My exact comment was "Vista had rough start but I think its not a bad OS now."

I take care of a large Windows server environment every day, have many Microsoft certifications, over the span of many years, have subscribed to WidnowsNT mag since it came out, been reading Paul for a loooooooong time.  However honesty brother all of that does not matter, I can read and post in this blog any "*%($#" time I want to.

My original post in this thread was to the Doc and his comment "Actually, the only place that I have been seeing 'Vista is a failure' is here" which I thought was strange because Vista has gotten a ton of bad press for many months.  So much so that Paul wrote a "swift-boat" article about the huge amount of negative press Vista has received.

So why dont you go wrap your Mini in your Apple Cert, and give it hug.  Maybe some of that vitriol will flow out of you.

Honestly Mike if Intel does or does not, the point is that story put however, came off in the press as anti-vista.  Which those three links clearly show, and hence I picked them for that reason.  I DONT care if Intel does or does not go with Vista.

I brought it up only to make my point to the Doc that said he only sees anti-vista stuff here.

@snakedoctor1

My point was that the anti-Vista story got coverage despite being based on an anonymous rumor while the factual coverage including interviews with Intel IT that showed that Intel is traditionally slow at deploying new technology including Vista and XP.

I totally agree that anti-Vista screeds (I refrain from wanting to call them articles since that would imply even a minimal degree of journalism) have taken the place of actual reportage.

I really don't understand how any of this is news.  Windows has 90%+ marketshare in a PC market that ships over 250 million PC/year.  The sun rises, the sun sets.  The latest version of Windows sells a truckload.  Vista is a good OS update, so that's great. Windows has been solid since Windows 2000.  Many of us still like the Mac better and it's very telling that Vista hasn't actually slowed the Mac's share gains (as even I thought it would, given it's slick interface).  Mac's are growing.  They're tiny, but growing.  And... so what.  Why do you people care so much about Apple?  It's as if you just can't stomach a world of diversity.  It's not good enough to have 90%.  No.  Only 100% will do.  Only the end of descent of criticism.  Weird.  It's just weird.

Well actually I'd prefer, OSX to stay under 10%, under the radar, and keep its crowed of users passionate about quality software and computing.

"I really don't understand how any of this is news"

because the media said that Vista "is not selling", "no one is moving to it", "Vista is a failure" and so on... its news because the facts and truth are directly against what the media want you to believe.

"Many of us still like the Mac better"

Fair enough... although I feel using the word "many" is overstating the situation.  I would suggest you say "a very small amount of us still like the Mac better".

"it's very telling that Vista hasn't actually slowed the Mac's share gains"

Vista installations... 0 to 8% in under two years

Mac installations... 0 to 7% in ten years...

Yep... Vista hasn't slowed Mac's growth... Apple has.

"And... so what.  Why do you people care so much about Apple?"

Yes you are right... we really don't care that Apple has only achieved a 1% increase of total Mac's in the last few years.

This is a pro-Windows blog, thus visited by pro-Windows/Microsoft people... so why do you keep coming here and spouting on about how great Mac's are?

Please, go away, don't come back.  One less person will not make any difference.

OK agree... Let's be pro-windows !!!!! ;-)

After all it's the best platform out there as all my colleague out there points out. After many years of using both platform they knows best.

Long live high quality windows softwares and PC boxes, to hell these sleek looking machines with the fruit on it !

And Pogue and Mossberg are just two Jobs' kiss-a$$. :)))

Congratulations to the current Vista team, I personally think it's working great. I started using it in April of 2007 and I really haven't had any major problems.

As for Macs they work great as well but obviously don't offer the variety or freedom that Windows does, except of course when their running Windows.  Apple is competition to Dell, HP and Acer more than it is to Microsoft.

As for share price, Microsoft needs to either start paying a healthy dividend or spin off some of its components and do IPO's with them.

@ daveinla:

Your sarcasm aside, I don't think anybody on this site [at least me] is mandating a "praise be to Windows" theme. What is tiresome and irritating is all the Apple fa[w]n trolls that keep badgering away at Windows in particular and MSFT in general.

The fact that AAPL continues to directly mock Windows [and its users] as being the kludge that doesn't even work is what makes them fair target of scrutiny on this blog.

Every day a PC vs Mac ad airs is another day this blog [and others] should blast Apple for any missteps - because it is Apple that is projecting the "it just works" image.

It is a matter of fact that Apple will say anything and everything to increase their marketshare, and this attitude starts at the very top. Jobs is a pillar of intellectual dishonesty when he sanctions the FUD campaign that Vista still does not work - even after all this time.

Paul's criticism of every little Apple misstep is fair game, my friend. In fact, it is very refreshing, after wading through a sea of overtly groveling and fawning blogosphere that simply parrots every word coming out of Apple's marketing machine.

Peace.

@RaaJ: Good point, and well spoken. Basically, I feel the same way.

Well said Raaj ;-)

You watch.  The stock will get hammered today because the market will not like their Q2 guidance.

news.bbc.co.uk/.../7513159.stm

Guys, with that attitude, bashing and disinformation will perpetuate. Deception on both sides, increasing hatred through the world. With a 3% market share [or whatever] why in the world would you lower your level of friendliness. I am not convinced that dishonesty is the intent, rather than honest, and I mean honest mistakes, although no and then it will occur in both of your divided camps of war. Decepetion is always uncovered quickley, and thusly posted all over the media. Apple does not get a pass as there is pleny of proof this week. Anything else is BS, because they sure is heck did get one. This 'iCabal' are such a small population that you should just not let them bother you. Unfortunately there has been a lot of mountain making out of molehills with slander and paranoia that the tiny Apple monster is huge and will harm you if you use it as well as undermines the Goliath MS. So the bottom line is that people who are much less than 3% market share [cabal like] are ruining your day as you feel that they attack your lifestyle, your beloved MS. Don't lower yourselves to the same level. Post a valid rebuttal with facts, and try to ignore the insignifant. Besides, what the heck is it too you? Do you own millions of dollars of Apple stock? Then who cares! Well, I am trying to appeal to the good nature of this community to change thier ways, Mac fans and MS, as I knowthat you are all good people. The proof is the help that you give, free of charge, and on your own time. I wish that this site would start taking the high road as the negativity is drawing me away.

Peace and Love [and rock & roll],

Doc

Doc, facts are sorely missing from this site, but then again its a blog.  

Blogs are nothing more than a way for anyone to publish whatever, with out having to provide facts and get a instant, world wide audience, if anyone cares.

Comments like this

"Because Apple sucks so much.

JamesNT"

are what makes or breaks a blog site.  The more you see of this kind of stuff, they less people will want to read it.

John, Snake.

The point is, atleast to me, most articles on this site are about WIndows and to promote WIndows.  Yet, it is you Mac people come and flood the comments with reference after reference to Apple.

Again, I don't hit Appleinsider.com and Macrumors.com and flood their comments with pro-Microsoft stuff all day, every day.

Just because I favor Windows, doesn't take a thing away from OS X. Nothing. ALso, I prefer Windows over Linux. Again, doesn't take a thing away from Linux. If you live Linux, more power to you! Yet, you people act as though someone just slapped your mother.

You state:

"Mac's are growing.  They're tiny, but growing.  And... so what.  Why do you people care so much about Apple?  It's as if you just can't stomach a world of diversity.  It's not good enough to have 90%.  No.  Only 100% will do"

No, again, it is you coming to this site and posting your many pro-Apple, anti-Windows comments over and over and creating this debate.  Go to your pro-apple websites and blog, or create your own blog.

And for Snake, I state that I use and support both Windows platforms and OS X and you make a very snide remark.  Nice.  Just more proof of you Apple people's attitudes.  "Nice".

Have a good day. I am done with this thread.

"Yet, it is you Mac people come and flood the comments with reference after reference to Apple."

Like Doc said...."FACTS", you lack them.  Please show me just 1 reference I have made to Apple.  Or better yet please tell my how I qualify as "Mac people" is it because I dont love Vista as much as the rest?

Oh no your done with this thread.....nm.

As I stated in a previous thread.

All of you. Get a life. Seriously.

I administer a windows network (500+ PCs), and yes, we bought that amount this year as replacements. The licenses on those 500 PCs are Vista Business; However, we can't use vista as our experience with it has been very bad. Lenovo and HP preinstalled XP for us in the PCs/laptops under the vista license.

SP1 corrected some issues and I personally have been working with Microsoft to iron out the problems. Right now I am the lonely vista user at the company.

My wife works at the equivalent of your IRS in my country, and they have had the same bad experiences with vista, but they bought the machines with vista licenses too, and downgraded to XP.

Yes. I can attest that happens. People buy Vista and downgrade. So what? Who really cares? Microsoft dominates and that is not gonna change soon.

@Delmont: The first posts in this thread were the WinCabal baiting the iCabal, so what did you expect? Btw, the avatar of dipshitadmin doesn't help, does it?

@mikegalos: "vista bashing bears little resemblance to reality"? don't make me laugh

@weedmonk: Yes. People buy and downgrade. Personally I have helped more than 25 home users to do so over the last few months. Btw, firefox will NEVER eat IE.

@Raaj: Vista does NOT work in some cases. I have just stated my experiences.

@everyone: Being a Windows IT admin I used to like this site. Right now it is going downhill.

@Paul: Your piece on the road to longhorn was excellent, so I know you can do better that just poke at the iCabal to get visits.

Peace. I'm out.

"This is a pro-Windows blog, thus visited by pro-Windows/Microsoft people... so why do you keep coming here and spouting on about how great Mac's are?"

Because Paul keeps spouting out mindless drivel about "iCabal" et al. Of course, that's nothing new. He used to do it on usenet, the old Internet Nexus, and now here. But it is the answer to your question.

If this blog were really what Paul claims it is---about Windows--you'd get your wish and the Mac guys would go away. Paul has, rather sadly I think, made so much of the content into stupid Apple bashing that the whole thing is going downhill.

I have no beef with legitimate criticism. What Paul does wrong is that his rhetoric goes to the lunatic fringe in the Apple-bashing direction to "compensate" for Apple sycophants elsewhere. Well, sorry, two idiocies of equal and opposite polarity do not add up to truth or rationality.

It just adds up to more idiocy.

I think it is now just Dvorak hit-trolling.

@Mikegalos [and Josh4u]. I am leaving the shore vacation today and will be packing up the Dell laptop. I'll let you know what I find in my Vista system panel when I get home. Yeh, I know, for a jock, I'm such a geek!

Thanks,

Doc

I just bought Vista Home Premium x64 and so far I have to say I really like it. To echo what Paul was saying on Windows Weekly, nearly everyone I talked to said not to use it. Either it was a resource hog, slower than XP, not enough difference between it and XP or that it had too many driver-related problems. I haven't experienced any of that except for one small issue. After installing my motherboard's chipset drivers Visa keeps telling me that the ICH9(southbridge) didn't have any drivers installed. Supposedly this is a glitch or something.

>>Windows Vista = Over 180 million licenses sold

Hmm?

Must buy a volume license vs installed base, Heck we bought 20,000 licenses and at the current time installed  ~2,000.    Paul, stick to the only numbers you know!  

Sales of licenses vs. installed based is not the same!   A look at your past articles will prove the this point.  12 / 9.5 , is not the same as 1 X 18.  Sorry!

.While I can support your market share theory i is nothing more that your admitted math skills..

Just a friendly point to your Wincabal group (i.e Wintards) GFY!    

Yawn!

Intel

( Windows 7, SP 1)

Hey Guy

when you buy a Mac , Apple give you Ubuntu??

when Dell has received the petition with 120 thousand signatures to produce PC with Ubuntu, Dell said ok no problem

Dell Produce 100 mil. PC with Ubuntu

Dell sales 40 mil. PC with Ubuntu

60 mil PC Dell convert in Xp e Vista Computer Big Smile

A voice told me that the next petition, Dell respond with a kick  in the @@@@@ to linux user

(irony not to be misunderstood)

chuckb84

There is nothing idiotic about Paul's criticism's of the so-called "iCabal". They are perfectly legitimate. There is an obvious and sinister pro-Apple bias throughout much of the media to the extent that minor problems with Microsoft products are exaggerated, misreported and prejudiced. That's not journalism, it is sycophancy and it's about time someone started talking about these things rather than having everyone leave their heads buried in the sand when it comes to the truth.

Heck, the fact that Steve Jobs endorses false advertising epitomises the problem Paul's been writing about for years.

"Because Paul keeps spouting out mindless drivel about "iCabal" et al. Of course, that's nothing new. He used to do it on usenet, the old Internet Nexus, and now here."

Don't forget "maccentral.com", where he used to troll around under the username "balancedview" or something like that. AFAIK, he may still be posting there under another name.

I think he's hoping "iCabal" takes hold on Teh Intertubes so he can have a claim to fame. What a legacy!

First, congrats to Microsoft. Despite all the ignorant tech bloggers, pundits, and bad press, this clearly shows that Vista is still the OS of choice. Despite the switcher commericals, despite the improvements of Ubuntu and other Linux variants, Vista still outpaces Leopard and Ubuntu by a large margin. In the era of internet availability and 24/7 news, nobody can say they don't have a choice. Considering how much crap we get from people in here that Vista "sucks", Microsoft and Vista owners have the right to flaunt this.

180,000,000 consumer users and counting cannot be ignored. This clearly shows a pace of 20,000,000 users per month. The question I have is when will Vista quit being percieved as a failure? 200,000,000? 220,000,000? 300,000,000? When?

My answer is "Vista was never a failure. Only in those minds who couldn't be objective, was it a failure." Only to those who are ignorant of Windows OS history, those with an agenda to insult Microsoft and dissuade users is Vista a failure. Now I can see if Vista was falling well under XP's numbers, that you could label the OS that. However, I believe Microsoft addressed Vista to fix the security issues that plagued XP. It was done and the ignorant complained. People are never happy, even if you giftwrap something.

If you follow any Microsoft OS, this is the pattern.

A.) Microsoft releases new OS. Everyone unprepared is caught with their pants down. PC Manufacturers, device manufacturers, and developers complain.

B.) Microsoft patches and improves new OS. PC Manufacturers technology and experiences improve. Device Manufacturers finally get around to writing proper device drivers and firmware. Developers finally get around to new OS.

C.) Windows sells millions more than the competition. Becomes the number one OS on the planet.

D.) Microsoft prepares next Windows. Developers and manufacturers fail to adequitely plan and beta test.

Cycle repeats.

Its clear that Apple is gaining ground. However, as I said in a previous comment, the OSes each appeal to a different segment. I believe the older, more pragmantic, less wealthy, business oriented, and others prefer Windows. Being that its so ubiquitous in its ecosystem, it would make logical sense from a compatability standpoint. I'm sure many of the Mac and Linux would disagree, but the consumer has said otherwise for 15 going on 16 years. The old adage that the "Customer is always right," still applies.

180,000,000 licenses is not 180,000,000 users.  I'm just saying...

@robertc

"There is nothing idiotic about Paul's criticism's of the so-called "iCabal". They are perfectly legitimate. There is an obvious and sinister pro-Apple bias throughout much of the media"

Sinister? Wow, Bourne Identity almost! I'd be interested in some examples of this vast Mac-wing conspiracy!

I'll agree the tech press is pretty bad. Enderle. Dvorak. I'll also agree that they are a bunch of lemmings and that when one of them starts saying something they all go "Me too!" However, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."  So, stupidity for sure, but not conspiracy.

FWIW, back in 1997, in the days of "beleaguered Apple computer", the tech press could never say a nice thing about Apple. I agree there is some similarity now with Microsoft. What other company can make $60B, ship 200M copies of Vista and be written up as irrelevant?

All this said, Paul's recent ravings sound very much like he doth protest too much. Ranting about ranting is, in the end, just more ranting.