This gets me a wondering...

For that reason, some Mac users worry about Microsoft's long-term commitment to Mac software.

...

'I'm sure it is a profitable part of Microsoft, but in the big picture, at the big board meeting, do they even see on there somewhere, 'We have a Mac business unit?' ' he asked. 'I think that fear runs through every Mac user.'"

Okay, I don't think all that many Mac users are worried about MS leaving the Mac all that much -- Panther's TextEdit edits *.doc files at some level, much as Appleworks has in the past, and Apple's shown with Keynote that they'll fill in the gaps if absolutely necessary.

That said, what gets me most interested is the chance that MS might spin off the MacBU. I wonder if they'd let them spin off if part of the deal was no release on Windows for X years. If the profit isn't enough that MS thinks they'd get more dough by investing elsewhere, there's no reason not to sell off the MacBU assests to someone willing to give it a go.

And, for those of you missing it, the deal here is that if I've got $1000 in a savings account making 2% and have an opportunity to make 5% by buying US Bonds, I'm losing money by having the dough in savings. If the MacBU doesn't pump out enough moolah, MS could start thinking it's more of a savings account than a gold mine.

And for those of you wondering, I finally got DTS to work to export Access files into Oracle 9 (via ODBC). Cheating, I know. But it worked fairly well.