I hate to be the pain in the ass that asks this question, but what exactly is an operating system sans monopoly? Worst case scenario, everyone that owns a PC has a different operating system: Some run Linux, some run the future of Windows, and some run various other open-code OS's that are incompatible with everyone else. Do you actually think that the companies that spawn these "new" OS's are going to take the time to code compatability with a dozen other systems they are competing against? Look at Corel with Wordperfect. They are automatically stating (however distant it sounds) that Microsoft has won the battle for the preferred office suite, because they are making Wordperfect compatible with Office, so users can transfer Word documents into Wordperfect, and Excel spreadsheets into Quattro. You don't see Microsoft bustin' nutz over trying to make Office compatible to Wordperfect do ya? Because they know they've won, and they don't see Wordperfect as a threat. The same could happen to OS's, if this Microsoft thing goes down. Ever think that Windows maybe isn't as bad as all that?
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I hate to be the pain in the ass that asks this question, but what exactly is an operating system sans monopoly? Worst case scenario, everyone that owns a PC has a different operating system: Some run Linux, some run the future of Windows, and some run various other open-code OS's that are incompatible with everyone else. Do you actually think that the companies that spawn these "new" OS's are going to take the time to code compatability with a dozen other systems they are competing against? Look at Corel with Wordperfect. They are automatically stating (however distant it sounds) that Microsoft has won the battle for the preferred office suite, because they are making Wordperfect compatible with Office, so users can transfer Word documents into Wordperfect, and Excel spreadsheets into Quattro. You don't see Microsoft bustin' nutz over trying to make Office compatible to Wordperfect do ya? Because they know they've won, and they don't see Wordperfect as a threat. The same could happen to OS's, if this Microsoft thing goes down. Ever think that Windows maybe isn't as bad as all that?