Apple’s recent announcement to move to Intel chips isn’t very surprising. However, it will create significant challenges for Linux companies like Novell and RedHat. As Apple makes the transition, more and more Linux users and more and more Windows users will be likely to pick up a $499 Mac Mini than they will be to pick up a Dell and install Linux on it. Having been a Redhat/Fedora user for about eight years ( five of which have been Linux as my ONLY desktop ), I recently delved into the Mac Mini. It’s a great machine, runs great, stable software, the software and applications are all integrated, and most importantly, IT ALL WORKS .. WELL! In the six months I’ve had the Mini, I’ve probably rebooted it five times ( one of those times was because I upgraded the RAM ). With the power of BSD behind OS X and Apple’s traditional ease of use, more and more Linux folks will opt to run OS X as their primary desktop environment and Linux as their server environment. I don’t think Microsoft will have anything to worry about in terms of losing market share to Apple. Business users and the general, non-technical user will need to be assured that all their normal business applications run on the Mac, something that will be very difficult to do in the short run.