Daniel and the Liars Den

Original title: "Daniel and the sycophants"

If you read RoughlyDrafted without keeping an eye peeled for irony, you might think Daniel Eran Dilger believes Microsoft is helplessly incompetent and incapable of surviving in the face of real competition.

While I suspect he thoroughly enjoys projecting that impression, I doubt he'd swear under oath to really believing it, at least not without caveats.

What I think is going on with him is that he just can't abide Microsoft's cheerleaders - the bloggers and columnists who persist in portraying Microsoft as being far more competent than it really is and who treat Apple's best efforts as being of no ultimate significance, except as they may eventually find their way into Windows - and that he's driven to respond in kind, with equal and opposite distortion.

Take this article, for example, in which he tasks The Street's Jim Cramer for attempting to weave FUD around Apple's prospects using trumped up concern over Steve Jobs' health, and the presumption that Apple would be lost without him. I particularly like this: "Apple desperately needs Jobs like a blazing forest fire needs a match."

There's also Dilger's series of articles addressing myths about Leopard, and now about Snow Leopard. He goes after this stuff with the ferocity of a wolverine and the tenacity of a badger.

If you read Dilger carefully, it becomes clear that sucking up to the hegemon is a hot-button issue for him (as in it's something you DON'T DO if you have a gram of integrity), and he's responding creatively.

Maybe he'll be a little mellower after he comes back from vacation.