| Mistershine said: And the alternative is what? Linux? It's made huge strides but it's still far from being user friendly enough for the general public. OSX I suppose is the other option but it's far from wallet friendly enough for most. |
It's Linux already. During the last 10 or so years, Linux was an unbelievable success story. Already today, people are buying much more devices running Linux than devices running Windows.
They just don't even realize it, and that's quite funny. Most people are exclusively judging Linux' success based on it's market share as a x86-based desktop PC operating system. And in this area, Linux is still almost as irrelevant as it was 10 years ago. Instead, Linux' success story began with the rise of the mobile and embedded devices that became popular in recent years and where the actual operating system is more or less invisible to the user.
Microsoft will remain to be the king of x86-based desktop PC operating systems. But x86-based desktop PCs will become more and more irrelevant. Microsoft's operating system situation is like having a perfect monopoly on horse shoes at the beginning of the 20th century.
Compared to Facebook, Microsoft however has the advantage of it's business being much more diversified. Microsoft has long understood that Windows and Office will become more and more irrelevant in the future, and that therefor they have to look for other markets. But so far, they haven't found a single field where their success is even remotely comparable to that of Windows and Office.
