Let me show you a couple of charts, both covering the last five years. The first is from a company that was trading in the mid-20s five years ago, and is now trading in the mid-30s, so it's doing a reasonable, average, entrenched established 10% per year, on average. Gains are so modest that compounding isn't much of a factor. Now here's the second company, covering the same space of time. It was trading at under $10 five years ago, and is now closing in on $200, a 2000% gain averaging a doubling (100%) of your investment year to year (compounding is a ginormous factor). Perhaps you've already guessed: Apple vs. Microsoft. I trust I don't need to inform you which is which. Now, unless you've already dismissed this -- as I used to do with bullish and enthusiastic claims about Apple (when it was trading at $65) -- perhaps it's time to rethink. It's no secret to those in the know that Microsoft's Vista has been an utter debacle, with online purchases of Windows XP now outstripping online sales of Vista. Many of these are people actually downgrading their new PCs to the former OS. I've worked with Vista...