Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Monday fired the opening salvo in the war between his long-awaited new computer operating system, Longhorn, and that of his rival, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple.
Gates's announcement was made days before Jobs unleashes Apple's new operating system, Mac OS X Latest News about OS X Tiger. Gates released an early rendition of Microsoft's new software on Monday, although a full commercial release is not expected until 2006.
The stakes are high. Longhorn, which Gates hopes will dominate the next generation of computers, has suffered severe delays, enabling Jobs to beat Gates to the punch with Tiger. Apple has also had a recent boost as purchasers of its popular iPod switch from PCs and laptops running Microsoft software to buy an Apple kit to synchronize their music collections.
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