Live chat PC makers’ slipups have forced Microsoft into designing its Surface tablet, but can a software company succeed where the HPs and Dells of the world have failed... can it become more like Apple?

Sure, the computer makers have slipped up badly on tablets. They are also in the dock for cramming PCs with crapware and selling you the machine they want you to have instead of the PC you deserve.

During its Surface announcement, Microsoft claimed to have a "30-year history" of hardware engineering that it can bring to bear. We must have missed that, between dodging mice and watching an Xbox that’s just 11 years old pile up losses.

Yet, despite a history of getting hardware wrong (Zune), Microsoft has set some tough conditions for any PC maker that wants to get Windows 8 on their tablets, too.

Join fellow Register readers, Microsoft watchers Mary-Jo Foley and Tim Anderson and Reg software editor Gavin Clarke for an interactive LiveChat on Surface and Windows 8 this Friday.

Topics on parade:

• Does Surface deliver Microsoft’s knock-out punch to Apple?
• What’s missing and what could be improved in Surface and Windows 8?
• What’s been your experience of the Windows 8 RC so far – “ho-hum” or “oh-no”?
• Would you buy a Surface tablet from the world’s largest software company?

Join the discussion right below at 2pm BST on Friday 22 June.