Shhh, not so loud! Such thoughts would destabilize Slashdot if they got out!
Seriously, this seems especially short-sighted, as the perception is that MS is getting thrashed by Apple in the consumer market. I think its more about preventing malware from getting ahold of the boot process, side effects be damned.
As much as I don't like Apple/OS X, most of my friends do. Everyone got Mac _because_ of OS X.
One got it because of low latency, and because he was "sure it won't hang up for a moment because of some background job". He uses it to make music.
Others got it for its (OS X's) usability.
That's a chilling thing IMHO when we rely on a single corporation to protect us. As far as the /. like rhetoric, you're using the parent's opinion that MS hasn't been trying, and is indeed seeing a steady increasing competition in desktop screen space (which I've seen in two different Fortune 500 companies first hand within the last 6 years), so if that isn't true, then the rhetoric isn't just rhetoric.
Seriously, this seems especially short-sighted, as the perception is that MS is getting thrashed by Apple in the consumer market. I think its more about preventing malware from getting ahold of the boot process, side effects be damned.