Originally posted by Paddy
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It was cost, availability of software and marketing.
In the 90s proprietary UNIX was locked to hardware and cost thousands. Windows would run on any common PC compatible and cost £100. Wordperfect and lotus 123 (the original office apps) ran on it.
You could stand up a windows server including hardware for less than a copy of Novell and client licenses.
Plenty of shareware available for almost any task on Windows.
Microsoft looked at ways to solve common problems not gouge money from you.
If Microsoft had not existed servers would cost £100k and only work with software approved (at great cost) to run on it. A simple PC would be a few thousand. Look at a Macbook running FreBSD and it still costs more. You may consider it is worth more but without M$ it would cost a lot more.
There are a few technically more competent systems out there if you have millions to spare. There is FOSS and lots of that is good if you can convince the business to accept its limitations.
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