Well said Mark. The problem with Sharepoint like so many other portal products is that many are horribly unfriendly with poor usabilitiy. Most focus all their time on adding portlets, gadgets and widgets instead of spending time on a solid, core product (see my article The big deal about portals under the Portals tab <=== over there in the left navigation). Also regarding Sharepoint as the middle tier OS, I don't think its feasbile either (not in its current form). But I wouldn't underestimate MS's intention to throw a lot of money at trying to make it happen. I wouldn't rule it out per se, however Windows Vista is going to *mark my words -- you can quote me on this* drive a lot of users to Apple. Vista is absolutely horrible. (Note to Microsoft: don't bother posting sales pitches in the form of rebuttals unless you plan on changing Vista. Also note that fair comment is a fair defence).