Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

Continued...

One of the primary things that this team does is build Office for the Mac. Microsoft Office is a relied upon tool in countless companies, and in this networked world of Windows and OS X, it only makes sense that Microsoft would produce Office for the Mac due to the strong demand from users who don't have a PC, but still need to operate in an environment similar to that of their colleagues.

Unfortunately, the price of the software makes it an unrealistic purchase to many, and even though I live within my office suite, I just can't justify that expense. There are other options, however, and I'm thankful for that. Apple's iWork productivity suite tries to go head-to-head with Microsoft Office, but even though its feature set may not be as strong, it is a fraction of the price of Office, and that goes a long way. In fact, those of you who don't like to pay for software if you don't have to can rejoice over NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org (especially since a native OS X version of OpenOffice.org is on the way).

The Macintosh Business Unit is also responsible for the Mac version of Microsoft Messenger. They used to actively develop Virtual PC and Internet Explorer for the Mac, as well, but the production of those two software titles has been halted, and Microsoft has recommended that users transition over to options from Apple such as Boot Camp and Safari. Is this a sign of the decline of the MBU? In any case, this is the only time that you'll ever hear Microsoft encourage you to switch to Apple.

I've mainly discussed Microsoft in this overview, but that's only because they've made such a strong effort to create a real presence on OS X. Apple has also done some Windows programming, and the results can be seen in the PC version of iTunes. Not only is their popular software music player available for Windows users, but it also allows music fans to properly interface with and use the iPod. You can just imagine the audience that has been opened up to Apple because of their decision to let PC and Mac users enjoy the iPod. Without PC support, the product probably wouldn't be nearly as much of a success.

Yes, Microsoft and Apple can work with each other's operating systems to some extent, but they're not hesitant to draw the line when the time comes to do so.