I was talking about once Windows came out. Yes, some existed but companies that were much more established than Microsoft couldn't even dent them.
Microsoft did well because they had a great DOS OS...quite frankly, I couldn't imagine what an insane mess PC use would be without a standard OS setup anyways. Looking at Linux/Windows/Mac we can see how more competition would only lead to incompatibilities.
Oh and regarding issues like Netscape vs IE...well that's an issue for another day. Personally I don't see having a free browser with your OS as a bad thing. People could (and do) just download a different one. It's not like using IE benefits Microsoft in any substantial way.
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I was talking about once Windows came out. Yes, some existed but companies that were much more established than Microsoft couldn't even dent them.
Microsoft did well because they had a great DOS OS...quite frankly, I couldn't imagine what an insane mess PC use would be without a standard OS setup anyways. Looking at Linux/Windows/Mac we can see how more competition would only lead to incompatibilities.
Oh and regarding issues like Netscape vs IE...well that's an issue for another day. Personally I don't see having a free browser with your OS as a bad thing. People could (and do) just download a different one. It's not like using IE benefits Microsoft in any substantial way.