Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

> Um, Linux users can't stop using Linux without great effort either.  Or FreeBSD.  Or even
Blender.  You might want to clarify your point a little.

I disagree. Right now I'm using Ubuntu, but I can switch to Fedora or OpenSUSE with not too
much effort, and even to a BSD or OpenSolaris. (Perhaps if I were a kernel hacker I might find
it more difficult to switch, but I'm not.) In fact, I can even switch to Windows and use
basically the same apps, that is, Firefox, OpenOffice, LaTeX, etc. Whereas, if I were a
typical Windows user, I wouldn't have IE or Office, and whatever other apps I use would also
probably be Windows-only. Hence I am locked in, and must continue using Windows.

> You seem to be saying that the only thing that's analogous is the difficulty to stop using
the product?  Why would something so simple need illustration?

The point is that Windows is much harder to leave than a specific Linux distro, or even Linux
in general. That's what I was getting at in the above paragraph.

And, yes, drug addiction is bad and Windows is bad, I think that's a very reasonable position
to hold. I hold it myself. We need the world to use interoperable and standard technologies,
not proprietary ones that lock us into Windows, paying the Microsoft tax, and suffering at
Microsoft's whim (e.g., when Microsoft stops selling XP, people that want to purchase it are
out of luck).