Quite simply, no. Without Apple, Microsoft would have an unquestionable monopoly over personal computer operating systems it was (and is) actively leveraging to gain competitive advantages in application software. That would create lots of restrictions Microsoft wasn't comfortable with.
The best scenario would be a niche-player Apple. In personal computers, it still is, but the "post-PC" products it introduced have a good potential of turning Microsoft into a niche-player as PCs go the way of the dodo.
That would create lots of restrictions Microsoft wasn't comfortable with
The most likely scenario was that Microsoft would have been broken up, which while it was unwanted by Gates would have likely led to a much more valuable set of combined parts today. Microsoft was the #1 software engineering powerhouse, but they always managed to sabotage their own efforts (force integration where it was detrimental, alignment to a core strategy that often meant that they saw themselves as their biggest competitor, etc).
If Microsoft didn't help Apple, and Apple hypothetically disappeared, today we would likely have a lot more mini-Microsofts in our lives.
Not necessarily. Keeping 95% of the world irrevocably hooked on MS Office would have been an equally good (if not better) outcome. The OS market is irrelevant if you've got the one software package everyone in the business world needs.
IIRC that's not true. Office for Mac has always been a pretty big cash cow for Microsoft, even if it doesn't seem like it should be. It also helps keep the Office-or-die ecosystem in businesses intact.
Making more money from Office is winning a battle while losing the war. If Microsoft didn't infuse cash, Apple could have potentially died. Microsoft's biggest competitor--one who's Mac division made more revenue than Windows--may not exist at all or no where close to as strong as it is today.
