That's it! Microsoft is throwing down the towel in its traditional face-off with Apple. Moreover, the Redmond company is pulling Windows Vista out of the ring, leaving it all for Mac OS X. Apple has long boasted the superiority of the Mac OS X platform, advertising the operating system as the most advanced solution of its kind in the world. In contrast, Microsoft has been a tad shyer with Windows Vista, and only presented it as the most secure Windows platform available on the market. The reason for such a shy strategy? Well, Apple has been long accusing Microsoft of copying Mac OS X with Windows.

And the fact of that matter is that this is indeed the case. Microsoft has offered indisputable proof that Windows Vista and Mac OS X are in fact one and the same thing. At Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in August 2006, the Cupertino-based company was introducing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. And Windows Vista was also present at the conference, as Apple banners hung all over the place with messages full of love such as "Hasta la vista, Vista!"

However, Apple failed to limit itself to this. It also stated that it was "Introducing Vista 2.0", that "Redmond has a cat, too - a copycat" and even the memorable "Redmond, start your photocopiers". But what seemed just abusive propaganda from Apple, turned up to be nothing more than the truth. The old dispute over the Gadgets and the Widgets are the same thing, and over Windows Aero and Tiger's Aqua graphical user interfaces, is now settled for good courtesy of Microsoft. But Windows Vista is more than a copy of Mac OS X. It is Mac OS X.

Just take a look at the screenshot on the left. It was taken from a genuine copy of Windows Vista while visiting Windows Update with Internet Explorer 7. And the verdict is delivered by Windows Update: "Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site. This website is designed to work with Microsoft Windows operating system only. To find updates for Microsoft products that are designed for Macintosh operating system, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/." What more can be said in Microsoft's defense? And this is not only the first time it happened.