It may not be easy being green, but being the unwilling leader of a world-changing computer company ain't no cakewalk, either, we bet. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, whether he likes it or not, Steve Jobs is the man in demand; Adobe, Microsoft, the other Apple board members, and even some financial analysts are all in agreement that Steve is the best man to head up Apple.

Given the results of our survey from a couple of months back, some 80% of AtAT readers agree, and we asked before he introduced the G3's, opened the Apple Store, reorganized the reseller channel, started the CompUSA deal, etc. That's a fantastic approval rating; too bad he's not interested. Now, given that he's accomplished so much in the past three months, just imagine what he could do if he actually wanted the job.

Actually, though, the article states that the board "isn't necessarily in a rush" to hire a permanent CEO, given how well things are going with their scrappy interim one-- and that just validates our conspiracy theory that Jobs is deliberately sabotaging the CEO search as a way to stay in the CEO slot without having to go back on his word and actually take the permanent position. Just because we're paranoid doesn't mean everyone's not out to get us.

It's finally happened: a study has come out which claims that Microsoft Internet Explorer is now winning the browser wars. According to the management consulting firm Positive Support Review, MSIE now has 63% of the browser market, while its arch-rival Netscape supposedly commands only 36%. Read the Net Insider article for details.

While every other browser share study still shows Netscape in the lead, the gap has been closing for some time now, and several analysts have predicted that if Microsoft keeps its momentum, Netscape will be overtaken sometime in 1998. PSR's study is the first to show that the lead has already changed hands; they attribute the boost in market share to the large number of Wintel PC's sold in recent months. What's preinstalled on every single one of those systems? Internet Explorer, of course. We'll say one thing for Microsoft-- their tactics work.

So the timing of this study's release might be bad news for Microsoft, who is still embroiled in anti-trust proceedings with the Justice Department. One of the ways that Microsoft is defending their practice of forcing the installation of IE on every machine is by pointing to the fact that Netscape still holds the lead in browser share. That argument becomes less tenable every day. Given that the "Redmond Justice" case will take several more months to finish, Microsoft is fast running out of defenses.

Remember COS? Of course you do, because it's the farfetched hoax that just won't die. Despite its "firm" release date of last November, the public hasn't seen any test data or even a single screen shot of the $99-shareware wonder-OS that claims to do everything but walk your dog. (And given Omega's claims so far, we half expect them to tell us that the dog-walking feature will be included in the COS 1.1 update.)

The latest news to surface about this vaporware comes from the German Mac news site, MacGadget. Apparently, Omega states that COS' delay is due to "financial difficulties," and Omega is seeking a new investor. (Hey Omega-- when you find one, point them our way, because we've also got a nice bridge they may be interested in buying.) MacGadget did a little digging and found that Omega's financial difficulties began as soon as a top manager for Microsoft Germany joined the investment firm's control department. They speculate, therefore, that Microsoft may be deliberately suppressing COS' development for any of three reasons:

• Omega has apparently stated that COS could run on Intel, so perhaps Microsoft doesn't want the competition.
• Given the rumors that Microsoft is having difficulty with the development of future versions of Windows, maybe they're interested in buying the COS code for their own use.
• Or, maybe they're just looking out for their new 150-million-dollar-buddies, Apple, by killing this potential competitive threat on the Mac side. (Ain't that sweet?)

An English translation of the MacGadget article has been added to MacInTouch's COS page.

Okay, this is all well and good-- except for the fact that no one has ever given us a single reason to believe that the COS is anything but a hoax in the first place. We have to admit, we're rather fond of how the COS stories just keep going and going and going. Wasn't it Joseph Goebbels who said that if you make a lie big enough and keep repeating it, everyone will believe it?