RED HERRING | MSFT to Apple: No Vista for You!

"Cooperation between Microsoft and Apple may not have been all it was cracked up to be if Windows Vista is not allowed on Macs in all its forms, an analyst said Thursday.

The licensing agreement for Vista, Microsoft’s newest operating system, bans using the consumer versions of Vista on so-called virtualization engines, which are necessary to run a non-Apple operating system on Mac computers. Microsoft does allow the more expensive commercial versions of Vista onto virtualization programs.

The move is surprising because despite their rivalry, Microsoft and Apple have historically cooperated regarding Microsoft software running on Macs (see Macworld Brings Enemies Closer). Microsoft has an Office for Mac version of its suite of business application that even includes a spreadsheet— something even Apple’s iWork suite doesn’t have. Looks like the truce wasn’t meant to last."