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I'm of the opinion that operating systems form a natural monopoly. The average computer user doesn't thrive on diversity. She wants to use whatever her friend
by allenbrunson 18y ago
I'm of the opinion that operating systems form a natural monopoly. The average computer user doesn't thrive on diversity. She wants to use whatever her friends use, so they can help her when stuff breaks, they can all share documents easily, etc.
I'm not crazy about the stranglehold Microsoft had on the industry for so long. But I think if it hadn't been them, it would have been somebody else.
- thwarted 18y agoAn operating system monopoly is not necessarily the problem, it's when an operating system monopoly is used to gain a monopoly on applications. In the same way users don't care about diversity, they don't care about operating systems. They care about applications. If Microsoft Office ran on other operating systems AND OPERATED EXACTLY THE SAME WAY (which excludes Microsoft's attempts to have Office and IE on the Mac), then the user could still get help from friends when stuff breaks and share documents. It may have been someone else, but perhaps that someone else would have been about encourages standards and interoperability and not application lock-in.