[kbruner]

I couldn't disagree more. There was indeed a very dark age due to Microsoft. I often wonder what a world full of scientist and engineers that had the highest quality software available to them would have been like. Instead we got Microsoft's monopolistic and predatory business and consequently we have all suffered. If you perceive Apple as being controlling then you must not have lived through this Dark Age like I did.

[ekianjo]

I was not referring to Microsoft, I was referring to the PC as a hardware platform. Besides, in Microsoft's OS, there were very few restrictions as to what you could do and develop and distribute, so de facto Windows was a very open OS as well in that sense. Not very good maybe, but a space everyone could use without restrictions.

And despite Microsoft and its practices, the fact that the PC was open, hardware-wise, made it possible for Linux to exist. That's how flexible the PC platform is.