The number one reason that Windows is all-pervading in the home PC
market is that very early on they realized the potential of tying the
hardware and software together as a single package. Other OS's were
too slow to respond and by the time they realized what was happening
it was too late. It's also fair to say that Linux for many years was
the realm of the geek and command line with arcane text strings was
the only way to get anything done. The rise of Linux OS's such as
Ubuntu is very recent and most PC users haven't a clue that there's
anything other than Windows - "Computing" and "Windows" are seen to be
one and the same. I try my bit here where I live and have switched a
few customers over to Ubuntu very successfully but it's slow going and
some just can't get used to it, requesting a switch back to Windows
with all its faults !!

As for all those hacked copies of Windows in the 'third world' if it
wasn't for them we'd all be having a lot less spam and viruses due to
compromised systems. Maybe it's here that Linux should be pushing hard
but unfortunately too many users just don't care if their PC is part
of a bot-net or not and until that attitude is changed it's an uphill
struggle for everyone

Roll on IPV6 when it will be possible to reliably trace the sources of
spam and viruses to individual PC's then block them out