Apple's CEO Steve Jobs compared Windows to hell in an on-stage conversation with the Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg at the newspaper's D: All Things Digital conference yesterday.

After Mossberg asked Jobs about the popularity of Apple's iTunes music store software and Jobs said more than 300 million copies were in circulation, Mossberg replied: "So that makes you an enormous Windows software developer".

"We are," said Jobs.

"How does that make you feel?"

"We've got cards and letters from lots of people that say iTunes is their favorite app on Windows," Jobs said, then shrugged, paused and smiled. "It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell," he said.

Although the comment likely won't rank with one of Jobs' most famous Windows swipes -- his 1996 "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste" -- the remark got a loud laugh from the D: audience.

Ironically, during a later Q&A with attendees, Jobs acknowledged that he has read some of the entries on "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" blog, where an unidentified writer known as Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) poses as the Apple CEO.

On the blog today, FSJ commented on "his" Windows = hell riff. "The analogy isn't perfect," said FSJ. "You can't get out of hell. You can get out of Windows."