Well, Steve came close to that road during his tenure with NeXT for nearly a decade on more than one occasion. It was obvious from the begining that while the underlying code was robust, it's placement and otherwise rationale was less than clear. Obviously the only real concrete evidence we now have from this strange and bizzare soap-opera that would make even Seinfeld's head spin is that the strategy was doomed, and that not even Steve will give it legs for the long haul. There's another metaphor about bells tolling that also fits - but I'll let history write itself in this case. Well the shit has hit the fan.
Rhapsody is dead before it's even left the gate in non-beta form.
Copland, Rhapsody, now this. I mean in spite of the Justice Department, Windows 98 looks solid for being released this year. Microsoft has slipped it's deadlines before - but never on this magnitude. It's half the reason that even the sometimes loathsome Esther Dyson on CNBC even commented that Microsoft has had some pretty lousy excuses for competition in the marketplace. With release schedules and focus changes like this, Apple is truely flying more blind than the average bat.