[calex59]

My take as a retired computer professional. I like Linux, it is a good system and it gets better all the time. I also like Windows, I use my XP constantly and absolutely hate Vista. It crashes too often and also will not run many older devices and requires a huge hardware upgrade on older machines that run XP just fine. I liked 98SE also, but is didn't find drivers with the ease XP does so I finally switched totally to XP. I always have a machine with one form of linux or another on it, and I need to download the Ubuntu just to check it out.

I acknowledge that MS has problems with some of their stuff, ME and Vista spring to mind. I do rant about them now and them however, I believe that the home PC market would not be what it is today without MS, sure they make mistakes, sure they want the whole computer market to be theirs and they try now and then to do so. Linux keeps this from happening totally, and if MS ever goes through with their plan to license and rent out hardware and software on a yearly basis instead of granting ownership, Linux will fill the gap, along with Apple.

I applaud MS for Bill Gates pioneering efforts working off of Software ideas he took from another company and am glad he built the company up and made PCs popular throughout the world. Where would we be without MS? I also applaud Linux and open source, the savior of software and the OS that helps keep the other two(Apple and MS)at least partly honest.

[Knitebane]

I believe that the home PC market would not be what it is today without MS,

Well, the home PC market would not be what it is without some company that built an OS. That it was Microsoft had to do with the fact that Mary Gates, Bill's mommy, sat on the board of the United Way with an IBM vice president.

The reality is that the PC market was driven not by Microsoft, which just hitched a ride, but by the openness and low cost of the IBM PC.