Engadget and Gizmodo are not pro-Apple. They are pro-pageviews, because that's what fills out their paychecks and in the tech world, there is no surer pageview bait than an Apple related article. If you haven't noticed, Google is now popular they've had Wall-to-Wall coverage of Google for the past week.

Look at mainstream science fiction; one of the holy grails is a computer that just does whatever you tell it to do without giving it any specifics or getting techy. It figures that out on it's own and does it. To most people, this would be magic, and like it or not and despite all their shortcomings, Apple is closer to this goal than any other company.

This feels like the iPod and iPhone launch all over again with the endless spec sheet checklist comparisons. Netbooks can do a LOT of things. Apple's "magic" is taking the half dozen things that people do the most and doing them well. If they can't do it well, they leave it out until they can figure it out. When I play a full screen video on my netbook, I have to go "oh let me make sure every other application is closed, and all these background services are turned off and that I'm not in super battery saver mode so it doesn't stutter. Let me look up the shortcuts for the player were again because the keys are really small and hard to find in the dark. Let me adjust the screen angle because the viewing angle is so bad." At a certain point in your life you just go "just play the damn thing already so I can enjoy it".

Have you actually used a desktop OS with a touchscreen? I have and they are all gimmicky. Go grab a netbook with a 10" screen. Start sticking your finger all over the screen. Start with the max/min/close buttons and note how your finger more than covered up all three. That's just the start. Almost every UI element is too damn small to be touched or too damn close to something else that you don't want to accidentally press. Microsoft has failed hard over the last decade with tablets because they have engineers like you who only think about the spec sheet and have never actually sat down and tried to use their own product.

Take a good look behind Bush, the people who actually put thoughts into his head: Cheney, Rummy, Wolf, etc. Those guys have been in every republican administration for decades. When they outlive their current host, they'll simply move on to the next one. It won't end at 8 years.