Did Microsoft Vista chief once have Mac envy?

Outgoing Windows Vista chief Jim Allchin allegedly sent an email to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in 2004 stating that he'd buy a Mac if he were not working at Microsoft. If Allchin really used to like the Mac better than the Windows PC, maybe he should have worked for Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rather than Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Although he's now claiming those comments were "taken out of context," those are pretty strong words for someone in charge of Windows development at the time, no?

Allchin, at least for a little while, said that Microsoft has lost its way with Windows Vista and didn't really know what customers wanted any longer. Fast forward almost three years from January 2004 and Vista is just about to be released to the public -- and Allchin claims this is the best, most solid piece of software the company has ever built. What does it resemble from many perspectives? Why, Apple's current OS X, according to many.

After having seen the recent release candidates for Windows Vista, it is indeed nice eye candy. It looks great (with a very recent PC and a very good graphics card) and in many ways the look and feel resembles Apple's more svelte looking operating system. If you buy into history books, Bill Gates ripped many of the elements from the first version of Windows from Apple's graphical user interface, so nothing new has changed here I guess. (By the way, I am making a joke here -- don't fly off the handle please.)

Allchin has said now that Windows Vista is "far, far better than any other software available today." History will tell if he is right -- and so will Windows Vista sales in 2007.

[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 12-13-06.]