I think the competition between proprietary and OSS is more productive, as Windows/Mac and Linux complement each-other better than two Linux distros would for e

I think the competition between proprietary and OSS is more productive, as Windows/Mac and Linux complement each-other better than two Linux distros would for example. Furthermore, there are interesting features/research opportunities that simply aren't interesting for either single party. In my experience the kernel is not such a big issue when it comes to cross-platform software. In fact, having a cross-platform core is doable right now with reasonable effort. The problems are ironically related to the different desktop managers, package managers and so on. :)