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So this week the Google monopoly hearings began, and right off the bat we see Eric Schmidt claiming Google isn't Microsoft and this isn't the 1990s. All well and good, but that may not matter. And while I am not a lawyer, I lived through the Microsoft trials and even got to watch part of a day's testimony in the back of the courtroom. Back then, Microsoft claimed that its behavior was good for consumers by having its IM, media player and Web browser bundled into Windows; a note that Schmidt similarly struck at his testimony yesterday. But today's Google is under very different circumstances than Microsoft. Let's look at things from the technical side:

You can see the changes when you walk down the departure gates at the airport. The Apple logos are everywhere. At the recharging stations, at least half of the notebook computers are MacBooks. And if you can see everyone's phones, you'll notice this: Most iPhone users have a Mac. Every Mac user has an iPhone. Those who have neither probably have an iPad.

The PC era is not dead any more than the refrigerator era is dead. But as long as it does not mean anything to proudly display a Windows logo, Windows itself is endangered.

I am waxing a bit nostalgic this week with various assignments for ReadWriteWeb: the story on PC BIOS, another one on embargo that you will see next week on the site, and seeing Rackspace's history of programming chart takes me back.

Can it be that DOS and I have been involved with each other for 30 years? That sounds about right. DOS has been a hard one to romance, to be sure.

This week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference the company made its tablet strategy more clear. As reported by Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Windows Phone President Andy Lees said: "We view a tablet as a sort of PC. We want people to be able to do the sorts of things that they expect on a PC on a tablet, things like networking to be able to connect to networks, and utilize networking tools, to get USB drives and plot them into the tablet."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said in the past that tablets won't run Windows Phone 7. The reasoning is now more clear: Microsoft wants the full version of Windows on tablets, not the Phone version. This might not be the only reason - the company might also be worried about cannibalizing Windows license sales with tablets.

Is the decision to focus on putting one version of Windows everywhere a mistake?

Last week Microsoft officially announced the next version of its operating system, currently codenamed Windows 8. We took a look at many of the features here. The announcement has generated a lot of buzz, but also a lot of uncertainty. How will support for legacy applications be handled? Should your company invest in Windows 7, or wait until Windows 8 is released? Although our readers have been clear they're not worried about Silverlight's future, others are not so confident.

What do you think about the Windows 8 announcement? Are you more excited or more irritated by the move?

Today Microsoft announced the Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) thin client operating system will be available on July 1. A release candidate has been available since March.

The company also announced that WinTPC will be supported by Microsoft's Forefront Endpoint Protection.

Today at the D9 Conference Microsoft previewed the next version of Windows. It also officially confirmed that Windows 8 is the code-name for the next version of Windows.

The new version, optimized for touch, presents a radically different interface similar to Windows Phone 7. You can view a video of the new version on YouTube (embedded below).

Microsoft has said that iPad-style tablets, generally referred to as "slates," that run Windows won't arrive until the next version of Windows arrives in 2012. This big beast of a WP7 tablet announced at Computex not withstanding, this rules out Windows Phone 7 based tablets. But will Microsoft get left behind if it can't bring a slate to market before 2012?

As we reported last week, Citi analyst Walter Pritchard believes that it's not too late for Microsoft to have a "meaningful" share of the tablet market. Larry Dignan at ZDNet highlights one particular area where Microsoft could challenge other vendors: Microsoft Office support.

Yesterday we told you about some details about the ARM version of Windows 8 that an Intel manager shared on an investor call. Now The Register, which originally broke the news, reports that Microosoft is denying the accuracy of Intel's claims.

But Redmond isn't saying which parts of Intel's statements are true.

Windows 8 will come in two major varieties: a "traditional" version with legacy application support, and an ARM version that will not support legacy applications. The Windows 8 traditional version will have a "Windows 7" mode for backwards compatibility. The news comes from Intel's Investor Meeting 2011, as reported by The Register.

Update: Microsoft has issued a denial.