JC>    Actually;  Microsoft is a marketing company...  IBM is a hardware
JC> systems company...

IBM has divisions (set up as separate companies for tax purposes) of 
software consulting and software production.  In fact, the new IBM CEO 
is the former head of division #7 (called ISSC, Inc.).  ISSC has been 
the fastest growing (in terms of monetary profits) division of IBM for 
the past decade.  Unfortunately IBM has minimized its hardware 
manufacturing (by moving it overseas) that now its R&D facilities 
outstrip its fabricating facilities in the western hemisphere.

The last time Microsoft had a tangeable product it actually made was 
nearly twenty years ago.  That product was a memory enhancement board 
for the Apple II.  Today it markets some peripherals which are made 
outside the western hemisphere but carry its (Microsoft's) name.

As such _both_ companies are marketing companies.  The range of goods 
and services marketed, however, is different.

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