Whereas the very promising Macintosh computer could have provided much sharper competition to IBM’s PC, Apple’s decision to keep control of the device kept its market share small, I believe, and doomed it to a marginal role.

So it could go with the iPhone.

The Macalope likes to imagine that somewhere there is a club of silly pundits who have made the argument that Apple should have licensed the Mac OS, blissfully unaware of the counter-arguments, and, well, . They meet and drink and smoke cigars and laugh—HA-HA!—about silly Apple and how silly it was—and still is, HA-HA!—for not licensing its operating systems. Because companies apparently run on market share and nothing else. And in a quiet ceremony this week, filled with ritual and steeped in tradition dating back to the early 1990s, Katherine was given her club blazer.

It is rather rich to be lectured on which operating system has a “marginal role” by someone who says this is finally the year Ubuntu will become a “serious contender in the mainstream, even among non-technical consumers.”

Don’t stop believin’, Katherine. Hold on to that feelin’.