In the 1990s, Windows PCs provided a cheaper alternative to Macs, and could run the most of the popular desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office, Photosho

In the 1990s, Windows PCs provided a cheaper alternative to Macs, and could run the most of the popular desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc. In the 2020s, Windows is still the de facto PC gaming platform, so much so that Linux game systems like the Steam Deck use a Windows emulation layer (Proton) to run PC games. Arguably Microsoft has done a decent job with developer tools and platforms (Visual Studio, DirectX, etc.) over the years, making Windows a somewhat attractive development platform. You might consider it "scummy tactics" but Microsoft did a pretty good job becoming a one-stop shop for corporate desktop software, including servers to manage them (Exchange) as well as cloud integration (OneDrive, Office 365, etc.) They also produced a groupware application (Teams) that provides a somewhat credible alternative to Zoom/Slack/etc. and is integrated with the rest of Microsoft's software. All this stuff can also work (sort of) on macOS and Linux, or even on the web, but it has better integration with Windows.