- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Define any market narrowly enough, and you can call it a monopoly.

In Reply to: Learn a bit more unless you want to look more foolish... posted by Farinata on October 20, 1999 at 01:37:21:

: Servers aren't clients, though; the actual desktop PC has run a Microsoft OS by default ever since Windows 3.1 was brought out. To try and claim that Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on the everyday home PC is, I'm afraid, stupid and ignorant of the actual evidence. Like I said, try buying a preassembled PC with anything that isn't Windows 95, 98 or NT loaded. You can't; 99% of the PCs sold have one of those 3 OSes on; all of which come from the same customer.

Define any market narrowly enough, and you can call it a monopoly. For example, I have a monopoly on me.

I've snipped most of your post because, frankly, most of it is entirely beside the point and, while it displays an enviable knowledge of the recent history of computing, betrays the fact that you apparently know zip about economics. The descriptor "non-commercial" (which you added to "competitor" in reference to Linux) is completely meaningless in the context of economic theory and the nature of monopolies. My point was always that unless Microsoft controls 100% of the market (look up "mono" in the dictionary), it's not a monopoly. If it has any competitors, whether they are "commercial" or "non-commercial" (to adopt your arbitrary wording), it's not a monopoly.

Sorry.

Follow Ups:

• Wa-hey! Farinata L'inferno November 08 1999 (1)
  • Wa-who? Loudon Head January 11 19100 (0)
• Google Dr. Cruel October 23 1999 (1)
  • And... Farinata L'Inferno October 23 1999 (0)
• If you make your terms vague enough, you can argue black is white. Farinata L'inferno October 22 1999 (1)
  • You can argue that black is white, but you can't make it so. Dr. Cruel October 23 1999 (0)