Maybe now, we'll all be able rest a little easier, knowing that the two greatest rivals of all time have a common interest.

No, I'm not talking about Yale and Harvard, Duke and the University of North Carolina, or your alma mater and its greatest rival. I'm talking Apple and Microsoft. This rivalry is so bitter, that every time I say a disparaging word about an Apple product, some overzealous Apple fan accuses me of favoring Microsoft -- and every time I point out a flaw in a Microsoft product, one of that company's zealous fans accuses me of favoring Apple.

The end of the tech rivalry was foreshadowed by Apple's announcement that the company would be moving its Macintosh computers to Intel-based systems. That would theoretically mean that someday, Microsoft's Windows operating system would become available on the Mac. I was among the many people who hoped it would come to pass. But neither Steve Jobs of Apple nor Microsoft's Bill Gates gave us any hint that their companies would cooperate on such a combination -- even though for years they have been in "coopertition" -- a combination of cooperation and competition.

Yet, it only took a couple hackers -- or should we call them heroes -- to get Microsoft's Windows XP operating system to run on the latest Macintosh systems.

Jesus Lopez and Eric Wasserman, both living in the San Francisco Bay Area, were goaded on by a contest instigated by Colin Nederkoorn, of Houston, challenging all comers to make the current release of Windows XP operate on the new Macs. The California duo gets to split more than $13,000 in prize money -- enough for each of them to buy a nicely configured Mac and a Windows license, plus have a nice dinner to celebrate.

Let's not revise history

In case you're one of those zealots who sits in either the Microsoft camp or the Apple camp, ready to snipe at anything that comes out of the other party, please remember that Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs make each other better. For a number of years, Microsoft's Office for Mac has been among the most heavily used software packages on the Apple platform. And let's not forget that in 1997, when Apple didn't have a market-leading product like the iPod, Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple, and the two industry icons agreed to share technology.

So don't be surprised if someday soon (perhaps around the ship date of Windows Vista), we'll hear Microsoft is officially supporting Windows on the Mac.

At least we can dream that it might happen. My calls to Microsoft this week yielded only a response that the company had "no plans to announce" that combination.

Vista not still on horizon

Microsoft has its own problems with Windows Vista, the next version of the company's flagship operating system. It has announced that it would push the delivery of the consumer version back to early 2007, instead of having it available for the 2006 holiday rush -- and immediately announced the same type of delay for Microsoft Office 2007.

I suspect that the major PC manufacturers, including Dell, Gateway and HP, as well as the big computer resellers are unhappy about this decision. But Microsoft is making the right decision if the product is not yet ready. It's a tough decision, and one that Microsoft has not always made correctly with past versions.

Large customers, on the other hand, may not see the same delay. According to the company's current plan, customers who have "Volume License Agreements" will start seeing Windows Vista and Office 2007 within two weeks after Microsoft releases the product to manufacturing, which is still expected to happen before the end of this year.