Microsoft gets a de facto sale of Office for Mac with every new professional Mac purchased, and a copy of Virtual PC for Mac for those who don’t know how awful it really is, or who know it’s crap (not the developers’ fault) but can’t be without it.When Apple set the Earth’s axis to tilting with total abandonment of PowerPC in favor of x86, Microsoft’s opportunities bloomed. Now every Mac sale also sells a copy of Office for Windows plus a valid Windows license to run it. There are some details to work out, I imagine, like who gets to be on top–does Windows host OS X, or is it the other way around–but it’s a match that has to be made.Consumers won’t buy Intel-based Macs because they won’t run Windows. A salesperson cannot be prepped to disarm that pushback from the customer. Convince and cajole all you like, but having just one Windows title that you really, really like is enough to steer you away from the Mac. But if the Mac also ran Windows, well then, all would be well. All will be well. Microsoft will make a priority of getting Windows apps to run on OS X through Virtual PC. Without the hardware platform gap–PowerPC emulating an x86 is a lot tougher/slower than an x86 emulating another one–it’s much more efficient, albeit not ideal. Ideal will come in time.There are two other possibilities I’m entertaining. One is that Microsoft will bail, but slowly, on Mac development completely now that OS X is a direct competitor across many lines of Microsoft’s business. The other is that Microsoft will add OS X to its list of Visual Studio 2005 target platforms. I’d welcome that, and it’d be cool if VS2005 pumped out Universal Binaries.Ah, I do but dream aloud. One thing’s certain: Microsoft knew Intel’s roadmap and Leap Ahead campaign well in advance, and it’s seen the PowerPC-to-x86 transition coming. Does Microsoft help Apple to ensure that some competition exists the next time the anti-trust lawmen come to call?One other thing is for certain: Microsoft will see to it that a Windows Media Player capable of rendering protected files and streams will land on Intel-based Macs. Software Development