Well, whaddaya know about that? In the middle of Day 3 of the "WE HAVE THE WAY OUT" UNIX vs. Windows Saga, Microsoft finally caught a break. To recap, Microsoft and Unisys launched an anti-UNIX site last week-- only word got out on Monday that they were running it on a UNIX server. So, early yesterday, they made a panicked switch to a Windows server to save face... soon after which, the site went completely non-functional, alternating between serving blank pages, "Directory Listing Denied" errors, and, most recently, a cryptic message to the effect that "no web site is configured at this address." One would think that if anyone could get a simple one-page site with a form submission running under Windows 2000 and IIS, it would be the company who wrote the frickin' software. Needless to say, the folks who hustled to launch the pro-UNIX "WE HAVE THE WAY IN" (running flawlessly on UNIX, natch) have probably been giggling nonstop for days.

But Microsoft has finally gotten its page up again after well over a solid day of downtime-- nice illustration of why businesses should switch from UNIX to Windows, guys; bravo-- which means the party's over (at least, until someone hacks the site). And now that the dust is clearing, it appears that the only high-level Microsoft exec to take the fall for the whole fracas was President and COO Rick Belluzzo, who "unexpectedly resigned" today amid a "restructuring," as reported by the Associated Press. (But of course we all know the real reason Belluzzo's walking; HE HAS THE WAY OUT.) Anyway, at this point we should probably turn our attention to something at least vaguely Mac-related for a change.

Well, how about this? Now that Microsoft's 47,600 employees are finally done scrambling to get a single anti-UNIX web page running on a Windows server, the Mac Business Unit is free once again to turn its full attention to our platform of choice. According to a Macworld UK article, the MacBU has "scheduled a presentation for April 10" to "discuss the future of the group and its products" now that Uncle Steve's historic and controversial 1997 deal with the devi-- uh, Bill Gates-- is drawing to a close. Remember, Microsoft only agreed to provide Mac versions of Office until this coming August, which means that, theoretically, Microsoft could disband the group and immediately stop developing and supporting Mac Office if it so chooses. C'mon, what's the Justice Department gonna do-- sue them?

However, if you're an Office user, don't panic just yet; Microsoft is widely expected to announce how lucrative its Mac business is and that it plans to keep taking your money for as long as you're willing to keep handing it over. So while we won't know for sure for another week, it's a pretty safe bet that we'll soon be hearing about all sorts of terrific Mac products and the assimilation of the Mac platform into Microsoft's .NET strategy. We don't know about you, but personally, we're keeping our fingers crossed for a Mac port of Microsoft's killer app: the IIS web server. Bring it on, baby!