Apple and Microsoft are generally perceived as situated at opposite poles of the technology spectrum. And for a range of products this is by all means entirely true. From the iPod and Zune face-off to the inherent comparison between Windows and Mac OS X, the Cupertino and Redmond companies are clearly going head to head against one another. For the sake of contrast, when it comes to the Mac computers vs. PCs, Apple has the ironical Get a Mac ads. The comparison did of course extent to Mac OS X and Vista, as the operating systems associated by default with the hardware.

Still, Microsoft has also performed its own humorous moments. The latest comedy act comes courtesy of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. Present at MIX08 in Las Vegas last week, Ballmer did an on-stage interview with former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki. The interview touches a range of issues from Google, to Yahoo, to what's wrong with Windows Vista, to Internet Explorer and to the Monkey Boy-love extravaganza for web developers. Just watch the video embedded at the bottom of this article, courtesy of Visitmix, and you will essentially have access to the complete Ballmer-Kawasaki interview from March 6.

Outside of the Monkey Boy/web developers, web developers, web developers episode, Ballmer also managed to pull quite a performance focusing on Apple's MacBook Air machine. Just fast forward before minute 27, and watch from there for this specific part. Kawasaki started with a question regarding what's wrong with Vista. Ballmer retorted asking: "Vista, the second most popular operating system in history?" To which Kawasaki replied: "yes, the one that you have no choice but getting."

The discussion moved on to Kawasaki's MacBook Air, with Ballmer being asked if he wouldn't want to use a computer that he could just take out of a little envelope. "This is heavier than my PC," Ballmer stated and threw the MacBook Air back to Kawasaki. "That thing is missing half the parts of a PC. Where's the DVD drive, let me look for that." And while he was looking, Ballmer simply could not manage the sheer weights of the MacBook Air and was literally taken down to the floor. Just good comedy, if you ask me.



Watch Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki Keynote