Of course, other OSs exist, but Windows is much more popular than something like Debian. Moreover, as far as I know, this monopoly status is not supported by the state (quite the opposite), but arose precisely in the free software market.
анонимный вопрос
As I understand it, you are proposing to discuss Microsoft as an example of a monopoly that emerged and remains stable in a free market.
Indeed, Microsoft once created a very successful solution that significantly lowered the entry barrier for users into the world of personal computers, both due to ease of use and the fact that MS DOS was very undemanding of resources compared to the monstrous Unix. Then, a decent graphical shell was created on top of the system. Later, when software compactness became non-critical for most users, the company’s products responded in time and began to evolve toward expanding functionality and improving design. In general, skillful adherence to market incentives allowed the company to gain a good share of the desktop OS market. The accumulated network effect is such that individual failed products, like Windows Vista, are no longer capable of killing the company; a long series of bad decisions would be required for that. Nevertheless, such a thing is quite possible. For instance, Google’s browser dealt with Internet Explorer, despite its deep rooting in the system and its initially almost monopolistic position.
Of course, one could argue that the state supported Microsoft by pursuing pirates. If software monetization issues were left entirely to the producer, there would be fewer distortions. But this does not look like a factor that helps only Microsoft and not its competitors. So, in general, we can consider the market here to be free in a first approximation.
And how is this large company faring under free market conditions? It is having a hard time. In the shrinking market for PC operating systems, its share is consistently large, although far from 100%. It failed to really squeeze into the mobile OS market, where two other manufacturers dominate. Gaming consoles, augmented reality glasses, and many other products also haven’t quite taken off powerfully.
In other words, we see that all the horrors that political economy textbooks frighten us with regarding monopolies are not applicable to Microsoft: it cannot relax, hike up prices, and collect monopoly rent; it must, just like everyone else, diligently improve its products and maintain a flexible pricing policy so that even low-income clients prefer to buy Windows rather than pirate it — and yet, one by one, IT companies are surpassing it in capitalization.
