Insofar as nobody's currently making money selling a desktop OS to consumers...there's nobody incentivized to protect the wellbeing of individual customers on t

Insofar as nobody's currently making money selling a desktop OS to consumers...there's nobody incentivized to protect the wellbeing of individual customers on the desktop. This looks like the root cause of the problem, except that in reality users are still paying for their OSes in many cases, it's just bundled in with the cost of the equipment and they don't see it as a separate line item. However, given the huge barrier to entry for any new competitor, not only in building a better OS but also in developing the ecosystem around it, I am increasingly sceptical that this offers a realistic route out of the current hole we find ourselves in, at least not any time soon. That's why I favour better public education, and ultimately relying on competitive and/or statutory forces to push developers in a healthier (for customers/society) direction.