Every so often, someone pipes up and talks about how Apple could really compete in the enterprise if only they would combine with a company like IBM or Oracle. This week, it's Don Tennant at ComputerWorld:

In our "Macintosh Insurrection" cover story in this week's print edition, an earlier version of which was posted on our site last month, Rob Mitchell looks at why such an insurrection could happen in the enterprise, and why it probably won't. The story raises an intriguing question: If Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's bluster about acquiring Apple back in the late '90s had panned out, would Apple be more enterprise-friendly today?

Can you imagine Oracle and Apple together? Oracle can't create a usable installer, much less a usable OS. I'm not sure I want to contemplate what the OS would have looked like under the direction of Oracle UI "thinking"

And IBM? IBM is a hugely successful enterprise player, but you can say describe everything they know about the consumer space with an ink-free pen and some air.

I think I like Apple the way they are - usable systems have enough value, thanks very much. And if enterprisey IT shops can't grasp that, then they deserve Vista and WS*...