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I may be saying the same thing in a different way. M$uck dominates because the most often used independent software vendors are all locked-in to M$uck either by maintaining their market base and/or under the table agreements or even by unspoken knowledge that if they get on the M$uck program, their market will be secure. I think Adobe does a lot of this kind of lock-in.
This kind of third party lock-in is also maintained by making sure there are no viable or threatening alternatives to the third party vendor's product.
Additionally, consumer media device makers can depend on the M$uck cartel to introduce and/or favor their products if they play along with whatever is the latest M$uck position. At the very least they do not want M$uck as an enemy becasuse it has the power to freeze them out of their own potential market or keep them from gaining new markets.
So a whole conspiratorial hierarchy with M$uck on top has evolved. Hardware makers love M$uck because M$uck can be depended on making whatever hardware is already sold, obsolete within about a two to five year period, thus creating the upgrade cycle where just as the hardware finally runs flawlessly with the previous OS, it is now outmoded with the latest software release. This is exactly what Vista seems to do.
I opted out of this ridiculous cycle the minute I switched to FreeBSD. But now my hardware is finally old enough to break down. The powersupply must be near fifteen years old. Sometimes it takes me many attempts to get the box to turn on, so I've just left it on for the past month, and turn off the monitor at night. The rest of the hardware (drives, graphic card, monitor) are from the late 90s 133mHz Pentium era, or getting on toward ten years old.
I basically haven't spent any money on the system in the last five years.
I think I decided to build my own machine next time too. All the small time custom shops who used to build a computer to your spec have mostly closed and the retail giants like CompUSA are the only alternatives left. So I tink I'll buy the components on line after doing my homework research and put it together at home.
The one thing I probably have to do is buy a full copy of XP for use in some of the consumer retail devices like digital cameras that only offer software compatible with M$uck or Mac. I think I decided against a Mac because of the heavy overpricing.
CG