Is it just us, or is Apple getting a little... bolder about taking on Microsoft in public these days? Way back in '97, Steve Jobs stood up in front of a Macworld Expo audience and declared the OS wars were over, announced that Microsoft and Apple were now bestest buddies, and then introduced Bill Gates's Big Giant Head live via satellite to tell the mostly-horrified crowd that Microsoft had just purchased $150 million of non-voting AAPL stock and assured us all that everything would be just fine. Ever since then, it's seemed to us that in public, Apple has been decidedly shy about saying anything that might be construed as a slant on Microsoft. Indeed, we've gotten five years' worth of Steve walking onstage and stating that Internet Explorer is his "browser of choice" and talking about Office like it's something that attaches directly to the pleasure centers of the brain. And for the most part, Apple avoided mentioning Windows at all, unless it was to point out how Macs can talk to Windows networks or run VirtualPC if they have to.

Things have been changing recently, though. While Steve refused to testify against Microsoft in the "Redmond Justice" trials a few years back, he did recently make a big public stink about Microsoft's proposal to settle a bunch of private antitrust suits by flooding the nation's schools with free copies of Windows and Office. (By the way, according to Reuters, that proposal has just been nixed by Judge Motz. Sorry, Redmond... nice try, though.) And now we're getting the sense that when he did, we may have witnessed a significant change in policy-- i.e., no more kid glove treatment for Microsoft. Faithful viewer Sledgehammer Smythe noticed a very interesting link that just got added to Apple's Hot News page: Six Myths About Macs.

Yup, it's targeted directly at Windows users, and in it, Apple attempts to debunk some of the most common misconceptions about Macs-- such as the myth that "everyone uses Windows" or that "the software I need isn't available for Macs." Of particular interest is the way that Apple doesn't mince words about how "beige Wintel boxes" are machines best left to accountants. Likewise, the company isn't afraid to mention that "our two most recent presidents, a Democrat and a Republican, both use Macs." And in addition to using Microsoft's own product against it ("according to the company that made it... Office v.X for Mac OS X is actually better than its Windows cousin"), Apple pulls no punches about comparing Mac OS X to Windows XP: "It can't be denied that Microsoft has made a good business out of copying the innovative Mac OS..." Oooo, that's a righteous burn!

Well, it's a start, anyway. What we'd love to see is Apple paying to stick ad banners linking to this page on some of the more Windows-centric sites on the 'net, so that somebody other than Mac users like us gets to see it. Until that happens, though, keep that URL handy just in case you know someone who wants a new iMac but still has reservations about buying into a "nonstandard" platform. And here's hoping that this really does mark the beginning of an era in which Apple goes out of its way to tell Windows users why it may be time to switch. Super Bowl commercial, anyone?