Mac OS is popular in the consumer market? News to me.
Maybe you should put a little time into learning the history of the personal computer business, and then you will figure out why Windows is the most popular system by far.
What? You don't want to because you're too busy insulting people? I will summarize, in my own words:
- IBM develops a new brand of personal computer and forgets to patent it. They arrange a deal with a small software company called Microsoft for an operating system. Microsoft finds some guy that had plagarized CP/M and modified it slightly, calling it QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). They buy the ripoff from him cheap, rename it PC-DOS and sell it to IBM for an enormous amount of money.
- Lots of people make IBM clones ("compatibles") that can run all the great IBM PC software, making the IBM PC, and with it MS-DOS, the most important architecture. The software pioneer Lotus introduces their highly popular spreadsheet, 1-2-3, for MS-DOS. Following this, everyone develops for it.
- Microsoft and IBM introduce OS/2, similar to UNIX's X11 system. It gives the IBM PC a user interface, but it is not widely used for lack of software and good functionality.
- Microsoft introduces Windows and pulls the carpet out from under OS/2 (IBM loses a lot of money). Microsoft makes a new version of Word, its somewhat popular word processor, for Windows and invites other software companies to develop for Windows.
- Microsoft invites companies developing business software to implement its new technology called OLE, which will be introduced in the next Windows. When they release the next Windows, they modify OLE so that it crashes all its competitors' software.
- Microsoft introduces Office, which is Word bundled with a bunch of ripoffs of its competitors' software, such as Excel, which is a bad clone of Lotus' 1-2-3 (remember it?). Office has immediate support for the new Windows; the competitors are still crashing.
- While its competitors in the business market go under due to OLE and bundling, Microsoft introduces Windows 95, which automatically uninstalls OS/2 for you when you put the disc in.
- Microsoft finally wakes up to the Internet. A start-up called Netscape is selling their web browser for $30. Starting with the second version of Windows 95, Microsoft bundles the operating system with Internet Explorer, which is a horrible clone of Mosaic.
- Microsoft hacks Internet Explorer into Windows 98 so that it is used as the file manager. For some reason, this argument convinces the U.S. courts that IE is a necessary part of Windows.
- Microsoft introduces a media player and a proprietary compression format (WMA) and bundles it with Windows, and for some reason, the easily duped populace starts to use it...
And so, it is 2004. Microsoft is now the proud leader in operating systems, office suites, and web browsers, and is gaining in media, thanks to the tactics I have described above.
That, kind sir, is why Windows is so popular in the consumer market.