open-source applications

Patch Tuesday is a Microsoft institution, but competing software companies are stealing some of the attention this week with security issues of their own. On Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.7, an update for its operating system that aims to improve application performance and stability -- and fix 68 security issues.

So this is really goodbye? Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft is Friday and tech-watchers around the globe are assessing the impact of the man responsible for the dominance of the PC, DOS, Windows and the "Evil Empire."

Such an assessment seems almost impossible. Gates and Microsoft have not only dominated the PC industry, they often dictated the computer and software choices for the home and, more importantly, defined the computing environment for businesses around the world.