I don't hold much of a brief for Microsoft (or for Apple, come to that), but Microsoft appears to take more of the 'Pentax' approach (see - it is possible to stay on topic!) - they support their existing users to a greater extent, perhaps, than Apple do. Apple seem to have been more willing to throw everything out and start again.
I'm going to leap to Apple's defence here, although in principle I think you're right.
Soon after buying my Mac I ordered "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Panther Edition)" by David Pogue. Going by what he wrote about the inner workings of OS 9, Apple didn't have any choice but to ditch everything and start over. The multitasking was bad, memory management was a joke, and stability was becoming a problem. OS 9 certainly was not an operating system to take Apple into the future. It was a pretty big decision for them to move to OS X but I believe that its already paying off.
I see it as Apple doing what Canon did: dropping their existing system for something which could give them a serious competitive advantage. Look at Canon's position in the market both then and now, compared to Pentax.
Regarding the book, I'm only halfway through it but its very informative and excellently written. Highly recommended.
Cheers,
- Dave
http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/
