>>Anything with those 3 blue letters on it was much easier to sell to business clients, so we stayed with IBM wherever possible.
True, but in 2011 many decision-makers already have an iPhone or Android device in their pocket... and many of them already have won a joust with IT to get their device integrated into company systems. They're already sold on the device in their pocket and already have gone to bat for it. The "installed base" is less favorable to MS every day that goes by.
>>My life and the lives of my clients would be a lot simpler if we could stay in a familiar tech world as things evolve, so our bias will naturally be toward MS and the usurpers will have a steeper hill to climb.
That's certainly true for traditional systems in which there will be a significant market for years to come, just as was for VFP for over a decade after Sigler made it clear that MS intended to neglect it.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
