That's what computers would be today. While I hate lots of thing Microsoft has done I have to admit they have moved computers forward with a lot of advancements: Windows 95, Office, DirectX (sorta), and even though it has been bad in a lot of ways, free internet browsers for the public. Most important though is a standard platform. The problem of code forking is becoming more noticable with Linux Vendors and its only going to get worse. No one can make money if their product is substantially the same as their competitors. So to differentiate, the companies add a little customization there and then a little here. Soon you'll have a problem where you will only be able to use certain basic features of programs because you can't make a program different for every distribution. Plus you'd in all likelihood still have numberous different hardware capabilities as well, just as we do now. Don't get me wrong, I love Linux (as a server mainly because that's where my experience is) but this is one place where Windows has helped society in general to embrace computing.
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That's what computers would be today. While I hate lots of thing Microsoft has done I have to admit they have moved computers forward with a lot of advancements: Windows 95, Office, DirectX (sorta), and even though it has been bad in a lot of ways, free internet browsers for the public. Most important though is a standard platform. The problem of code forking is becoming more noticable with Linux Vendors and its only going to get worse. No one can make money if their product is substantially the same as their competitors. So to differentiate, the companies add a little customization there and then a little here. Soon you'll have a problem where you will only be able to use certain basic features of programs because you can't make a program different for every distribution. Plus you'd in all likelihood still have numberous different hardware capabilities as well, just as we do now. Don't get me wrong, I love Linux (as a server mainly because that's where my experience is) but this is one place where Windows has helped society in general to embrace computing.