Kona, Microsoft is an angel compared to some... Apple has questionable practices as well, but even then there is still worse out there. Just take a look at the company of fools GWB is in charge of and you'll see wot I mean.

And you think pigeon poop is bad!!! hmmmmmm!??

We should all take a moment and remember the old saying, Be careful for what you wish for, you just might get it.  :NOTSURE: 

If Microsoft bowed out, the world would go on.

I can imagine the talk at various times in history:

What if Gutenberg bowed out of the printing business?

What if Stradivarius bowed out of the violin making business?

What if Carnegie got out of the steel business?

What if Edison stopped making lightbulbs?

What if Henry Ford bowed out of the automaking business?

What if they discontinued the Commodore 64?

Times change.

geesh this is about MS not GWB(or WJC or whomever)can you give it a rest  

but back on topic- it may have mattered years ago but I don't think so much now

Who would step up to fill this void, Apple or Linux?

Nobody would step up. People would complain and refuse to buy anything from Microsoft's competitors, just like now. Well, Apple would gain users, I think; but Novell and Sun would only gain very few.

Would IBM attempt to revise an early attempt at an OS?

An early attempt like OS/2? IBM would probably fail to re-introduce OS/2.

Does Sun Micro Systems have an OS ready to put into place?

Yes. Solaris is quite usable.

Is there possibly another OS in the works just looking for a place to land?

Palm might offer BeOS again.

Why hasn’t Apple released its Mac OS to the general public?

??? They have. Maybe you mean "Why does Mac OS only run on Apple-made computers?". The reason is two-fold.

First, it is extremely expensive to support all the hardware out there and only Microsoft can do it. Market forces make it so that only one vendor has the market share needed to support development of that scale.

Second, if you are not the market leader, you must make your money elsewhere to support your operating system. Hence most other OS vendors, like Apple or Sun or Novell, make their money from either hardware or consulting or services or network products. In Apple's case it's the hardware. If Apple's hardware sales would go down, they would not have the resources to support their OS development any more.

There is a third reason in that Mac OS' greatest advantages over Windows have very much to do with the fact that it doesn't have to support such a great range of hardware configurations. Plug and play in Mac OS works because Mac OS has to deal with fewer configurations.

Mac OS X on generic hardware would not be fun. You'd have unsupported graphics adapters, likely no sound, installation problems of Windows proportions, and a whole lot of (stupid) support calls about problems arising when users refuse to read the manual.

If people wanted an alternative to Windows, they would have used OS/2 in the past or Novell's SuSE Linux now.

(Sun Solaris is being offered for non-Sun hardware but you get all those driver problems. Buy it with Sun hardware, and you have an amazingly well-supported OS which works a lot better than Windows or Mac OS, but supports very little consumer hardware like cameras and PDAs and what not.)

If they did, how many of you would jump at the chance to use the Mac OS.

Between 5% and 10% of users jump at the chance now. If Microsoft would stop selling software Apple's market share would probably double while the majority of Microsoft's customers would simply use the last version of Windows forever (and third parties would support them and extend Windows, like it has been done with OS/2).

I have used OS/2 at home in the 90s, Solaris at the university, BeOS and then Linux and then Mac OS X at home since 1998, and BSD and then Windows in the office.

All of these operating systems worked well, but Solaris, Mac OS X, and BeOS stood out:

Solaris was the most robust and stable of the lot. We used mostly terminals connected to a server serving thousands of users for files and dozens of users for terminal sessions and everyone was surprised when the server had to be restarted more often than once per semester.

BeOS was the fastest. No comparison.

And Mac OS X is the most user-friendly and least annoying (i.e. no windows suddenly steal focus, selecting text always works exactly as expected, configuration options are not hidden behind a myriad of Windows and there are no pop-ups telling me that there are pop-ups etc.).

Linux was and still is to difficult to use. Installation is easy now, but it is never obvious how you are supposed to configure a network adapter etc..

OS/2 was too slow.

Oooops, sorry, didn't realise a bit of levity was gonna upset the apple cart.

Apple carts not withstanding, it is a perfect example. Government is the most corrupt form of big buisness out there. And talk about monopolies! What about the United States Postal Service? There's an example of a buisness that would be better off if the government allowed competition. And it's not just GWB (or WJC, or however else). It's government in general.

But back to Microsoft....

People buying MS products has made the company what it is today. You can't blame Bill Gates/MS for consumer purchases. Apparently, the average consumer likes what MS has to offer......

Company of fools GWB is in charge of? Are you implying that GWB isn't an idiot himself? Funny...



We might have a smaller problem with the oil industry and global warming.



I can't recall the last time I bought Windows without buying a new PC with Windows on it. Maybe back in the Windows 98 SE days.

My whole point I was getting too is MS has done things in the past that have hurt PC software makers everywhere. You can not deny that Ballmer is a bit of an arse. I know others have done the same but MS is the one getting away with it here. Different story in Europe.

Oh no. I definately can't deny that fact, kona.........

Nah, not implying GWB isn't an idiot... but words failed me to describe his state of mind and demeanor.

Thats because he doesn't have one.