None of those had networking that even stupid users could setup.
Okay, this is the point at which I stop taking you seriously, because you've
just failed to pick up a category. Only two of those were vendors. One of
them was a browser, and thus not even in the right category to be "had
networking that even stupid users could setup".
Furthermore, it just ain't so. Back in the OS 6 days, I saw stupid users
set up networking very easily with no problem at all on a Mac. Plug the cable
into two machines, tell them to "turn on appletalk", and there you go,
network.
You might want to define what you mean by a "real choice". Back in the day,
I once spent a day and a half trying to find a vendor who was willing to sell
me a non-Windows laptop.
And they certainly do now when the main alternative is quite literally free.
That doesn't necessarily create a "real choice" for most people. A real
choice is what you get from what you see on the shelves in a store. It also
has to live within constraints such as "the specific software we have to run
can run on this".
But you know what? Even if you have a point, you're too much of a jerk about
it to be fun to talk to. One of the foundational tools in effective
discussion is called the "principle of charity", and you haven't got any hint
of it. I love talking to people who have interesting opinions and are
willing to argue for them. I don't like being insulted by someone whose
purpose in posting is clearly to try to make himself feel important and smart
at the expense of other people.
It's Usenet. Whatever you know, someone in the group knows more than you.
However smart you are, someone in the group is smarter than you. Whatever
your personal experience, someone in the group has more relevant personal
experience. I could gloat about how well I know C, but dmr's been seen to
post to Usenet occasionally.
Smart people learn from this to be humble and polite. People who are arrogant
and rude are, essentially without exception, not smart enough to be
interesting.
*plonk*
-s
