"Mac OS on a Dell? Dell Favors, Apple Opposes"

In this article, Dell seems to be willing to sell machines that run on OS X as well as on Windows -- if Apple will let them, that is.

Most telling quote:

But Apple can't afford to let Mac OS X loose right now, says Roger Kay, vice president of client computing with research firm IDC. If Mac OS X could be separated from Apple's hardware, hackers would have pirated copies of the operating system out on the streets with little delay, he says. This would cause great harm to Apple's business model, which emphasizes its tight control over the entire combination of hardware and software as a premium product, he says.

At least one analyst believes that Apple is due for a day of reckoning with this strategy, especially now that it plans to move to x86 chips. Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, California, thinks it is only a matter of time before someone in the PC industry sues Apple for "tying" its operating system to a specific type of hardware available only from Apple. [emphasis added]

Apple has always prided itself on being the anti-Microsoft, even if it means only a miniscule share of the market. If Macs get too popular, Steve Jobs's company may face the same problems as Bill Gates's company -- lawsuits and viruses.