The market is an illusion. Until recently I had no means to buy Linux, I was forced to buy Windows (and it is illegal here, but all you get for going to a trial is not even the price of a licence). Even today the options are very few.

The idea of a market works if it costs ~0 to enter a market, consumers have an infinite access to knowledge and infinite time to make a decision BUT make it in 1s when at the store, and also enough money so as to not be a problem. Basically, consumers have all the power and vendors have none.

Nothing is really a market, and operating systems definitely shows it.

> The idea of a market works if it costs ~0 to enter a market, consumers have an infinite access to knowledge and infinite time to make a decision BUT make it in 1s when at the store, and also enough money so as to not be a problem. Basically, consumers have all the power and vendors have none.

I keep trying to communicate this whenever people are attempting to manifest an Invisible Hand to control bad behavior. More people need to be aware of this.

I like your succinct point. I wish there was something so short and understandable for an even fuller picture. Like including that for a marked to price things in a way that works for societies, consumers need to choose long term over short term gains and that the price needs to not make economic externalities of human rights or destroying the climate.

>Until recently I had no means to buy Linux, I was forced to buy Windows

Huh, why not?

Because no computer was sold with Linux in it. There wasn't even an offer, let alone a market.

You can just install it after the fact. Do you lack internet?

Are you serioulsy implying that everyone had hundreds of MB to spare, the knowledge, the material and the time to do it ? I'm talking about the beginning of the century when the only connection was through 56k. I'm talking about being an underage kid who discovers computing, through whatever exists in the store, and you think downloading an iso is straightforward ?

You said 'until recently' but you're describing a situation from the 90s.

It's still true today, machines with Linux can barely be found in stores. You can find them online but that's not always easier for people who are not knowledgeable

It's not true today at all lol. You talked about not having access to Linux and only having dial up speed - that's strictly a 90s problem.

You don't see them in stores because there is not enough demand for them, and because stores are dying anyway. Very easy to find them online to buy.

> only having dial up speed - that's strictly a 90s problem.

Dial up was widespread well into the early 2000's, and even then ADSL started to spread slowly.

> You don't see them in stores because there is not enough demand for them

There is no demand because, again, the market is a lie. One OS is forced to consumers, on the computers they buy in the stores, they use at school, they use at work. That's exactly what I'm saying.

> Very easy to find them online to buy.

Computer literacy of the population is not comparable to the one of people on HN, so no, I wouldn't say it is as easy as buying a linux computer online than buying any computer offline.

Bro you are really arguing for the sake of arguing now.

> Dial up was widespread well into the early 2000's, and even then ADSL started to spread slowly.

Cable became common in the early 2000s, and even if you couldn't get it at home you could go somewhere that had decent speed, certainly to download a 600mb ISO.

Not bothering to address the rest of your contrarian points.

> Can we say that the market has spoken?

Microsoft aggressively abused its monopoly position in order to make sure that Linux would never win in the desktop market, and then inertia took over, so no we can't say that the market has said anything useful