The day of reckoning may be drawing nearer than most like, with the first copies of the Intel-enabled MAC OS making their appearance on the IRC and Bittorrent network - cracked to run on any PC, of course.

The time for Windows and MAC OS to look each other square in the eyes has come, and this time no amount of blue smoke on either side will hide the truth from consumers: is MAC OS X the best thing since sliced bread, or is it a pretty aqua-coloured illusion for woolheads? Now that Apple has officially announced the transition to Intel CPUs, there no longer are mysterious Altivec-flavoured fairy tales to pull, and apparently all that differentiates an Intel-based Mac computer from a standard PC is a little chip called 'Trusted Machine Module'.

Apple sent the first copies of their Intel compatible MAC OS to Apple Developer Connection subscribers, along with some MacIntels to run it on, and some enterprising hackers promptly got their hands on the OS and cracked it open to run on Intel-based machines without a TPM - that's a bog standard PC to me and you.

Preliminary reports state that the Intel-based MAC OS X runs faster on current-day PCs than it does on the most powerful Macs, though to be fair it's a cut-down beta with missing functionality, and we won't know the full - and true - story until the proper full version hits the shelves, and is cracked.

An age of bigotry and pointless posing is drawing to a close for both Windows and Apple users, and the two operating systems are going to be drawn into an arena where their respective machines will run near-identical hardware, and users will finally know whether they've been paying too much for their Mac peace of mind, or whether relentless corporate economics have forced them to use Windows when something better was always available. We can't wait for that day to come, so that we can get on with work in a world devoid of brainless propaganda on either side.