I agree, MS is the dominant force in the operating system market. The barriers to entry are now so high, mainly because of economies of scale, that no other operating system vendor can compete. Also, I believe MS products have proprietary hooks into the WIN API making its applications perform better than the competition.

So, the question is: Is the consumer better off with the status quo or with increased competition? I don't know the answer to that question. However, I do know I can buy a copy of VFP for a few hundred dollars and bill out at $100 per hour and not have to pay any royalties when I distribute my applications. Also, I can stand up a SQL Server at a fraction of the cost of an Oracle server and have a rohbust and secure database system. MS is making my life better!

Charlie