Personally, I remember cringing even back when Yahoo! bought flickr AGES ago, and to be honest, Flickr has only gotten better since. So this time around, I’ll take a chill pill and wait and see if Microsoft will indeed turn Flickr into a forecourt of Hell. And hey, for now I consider it class A entertainment to follow protests all over the web

It becomes especially interesting, when you look at MS and Apple’s so very different communication strategies. MS are open about development, they blog, they test, and they pay attention to what their users request. Apple seem to take some (educated) stabs at what users request, and then keep them under lock and key until they are good and ready to communicate them.

I’m torn. I would love for Apple to be more open in their communication and involve their users much more in the development of products, but personally, I’m completely in love with my Mac. I think it’s the best computer I’ve ever worked on. Hands down. But why? First of all, I really like the fact that it looks good, and it ‘feels’ good (know what I mean?) but to me, it’s also a question of what’s inside. The software just suits me better. The UI, the apps, the ease with which I navigate between work and play – music, pictures, integration with web services, all packaged really nicely and yes, it IS more stable than any PC I’ve ever worked on.

One huge added bonus (and the reason I went mac when I did) is the fact that I can run fully functional Windows software using Bootcamp or Parallels (tried both – settled on parallels, cause I don’t have to reboot to switch between systems).

But when talking about apple’s success, one factor stands out over all the rest – the almighty Ipod! Were it not for Apple’s MONSTER of a DAP, I doubt that they would have been able to reach customers outside of their original target audience (creatives).

The Ipod is still at the very foundation of Apple’s succes, and although they try to position their computers and have them appeal to a broader audience, the Ipod is still the breadwinner of the Apple family – and probably will be for a long time to come.

But this sheep of a Mac-user will be following developments at the Expo very closely for the next four days, hoping for really sexy stuff.

Apparently, Microsoft are getting into the viral marketing game BIGTIME, promising underprivileged geeks free copies of vista if they watch a few webcasts and online virtual lab sessions. This is a wild move, and I can’t wiat to see how it works out for them. It’s kinda similar to when Stormhoek teamed up with Hugh Macleod and sent out free bottles of wine to selected bloggers to get the juices flowing about their product – only at a larger scale. Gutsy – and I’d join in the fun if I wasn’t a Macaddict. To read more, follow the link to the story @ Engadget, or go straight to the source – oh my God, I’ve just contributed to a Microsoft campaign!