I'm really not sure that's all there is to it. Sharing music and that sort of thing aside, there is a real philosophical and political component to FOSS that makes a difference in the world, I think. There is more to digital communication than simply selecting the tools, though I agree in that regard the competition is a very good thing. Technical development (as in why the GNU foundation started), the availability of tools to those without loads of disposable cash, might actually be more important in the long run than which program we pick for a particular job today. (do you think the OLPC would ever have started if there had been no GNU or Linux? Do you think that an MS version would be anything but an addiction setup, if against all odds it had happened?)
I think, in partial agreement, that there is a symbiotic relationship between commercial technology, the economics of digital technology use and development, and FOSS. Certainly there is a need for "it works like my toaster" appliances, and a need to actually employ developers and support people. On the other hand, there really isn't a need for for the sort of evil empire monopolies we are currently seeing. Microsoft and others running about threatening lawsuits--profit by litigation, bogus (clandestinely paid) analysts and action groups, and bewildered, bamboozled, benighted, and coercive courts and government agencies employed ill-conceived and outdated policies (like U.S. copyright) aren't actually good in any way. Things could conceivably be worse, certainly, but that isn't much of an argument. This doesn't mean I think there should be no MS. I don't actually care one way or the other. I do care about corrupting the laws and the government, or about artificially limiting technical growth to control "market share."
You'll notice I didn't focus on linux, but rather on FOSS/GNU. I think that is the issue, and linux is just an aspect. Take away MS , and Apple, with a wave of the magic wand. Let linux shatter into a million projects. Something will still work--like debian, or the BSDs... and somethiing much like OSX would appear quite quickly, I suspect, and there would be the commercial monolith. The techno-juridical thugs produced by organizations like MS, and, probably the RIAA (though I really don't want to get into the dicsussion of copyright and entertainment media here), like the big business thugs from other industries, like oil, are simply inexcusable. My government's cooperation with said thugs is likewise unfortunate, and has cost us lives and a war, in the case of oil. Certainly the techno-thugs have had a more subtle effect, but possibly a long lasting one regarding the future of free speech communication and innovation?
At any rate, I claim copyright to the possibility of opposing this view in any possible written form, by having anticipated it in this claim. If I had a few billion to blow I could sacrifice a few unfortunates who lacked the money to oppose me in court and sure scare a lot of people away from disagreeing with me, couldn't I? What if I were a governenment?.
