Without standing very firmly behind the argument, Microsoft popularized computers in a serious way that provided the market that provided web jobs. You can argu

Without standing very firmly behind the argument, Microsoft popularized computers in a serious way that provided the market that provided web jobs. You can argue that without Microsoft, the collection of marginal suppliers would have stepped up and provided the same large market, but you can't show that very well. (Another argument suggests that the automatically provided browser enhanced the interest in the internet - "I have this program that doesn't work! I must make it work by getting the internet!" - that may not have existed without IE preinstalled. "If the internet is so useful, why didn't it come preinstalled, like Office did?")