>>Apple will be nothing more than a flashy company. They have never been on top, or close to the top, of anything besides MP3 players in the current world of IT. I think their new product, the iPhone, will show a lot about the company - specifically, how they handle bugs, security, and patches like Microsoft has been for years.
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>I'm pretty sure Apple has been handling bugs, security, and patches for quite a while. :)

Not if you ask them... their software is perfect! Seriously though, they have not been in the public eye as compared to Microsoft, but that is about to change and they had better be ready.

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>>If Microsoft starts to falter I see the opportunistic Google striking either some sort of Linux deal. They are in a good position.
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>Maybe. My money would be on Apple before the open-source community. Open-source, by itself, will never knock off MS. No one to drive the vision.
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>With whom would Google strike this "Linux deal"?

Google will drive the open-source vision. They will buy some company or develop a distro that will perfect the "run a cheap PC with all heavy applications run from the internet" mindset.