> Do you really want to live in that world? The world where I have to get past Google's, Apple's (iOS and Mac app store), Debian's and Steam's arbitrary rules about what is and isn't an acceptable app?
Actually yes. With the caveat that I can still install applications outside of the repositories and/or install third party repos. With Android and Debian I can. And Steam isn't quite the same since it's an application rather than OS so you can bypass Steam entirely (even on SteamOS).
That way you have some reassurances (albeit no guarantees) about the software you install, plus a method to manually bypass those protections if you so desire.
> One of the reasons Windows flourished was the openness of the platform.
No, that's not the reason. Or at least not the openness of the _software_ platform. The reason Windows flourished was the number of IBM-compatible clones out there and the monopoly Microsoft had -and successfully campaigned to retain for many years- on said hardware. Under those conditions Windows only needed to be "good enough" to compete rather than a market leader in openness, stability, security, nor any other measure that us geeks normally consider.
Actually yes. With the caveat that I can still install applications outside of the repositories and/or install third party repos. With Android and Debian I can. And Steam isn't quite the same since it's an application rather than OS so you can bypass Steam entirely (even on SteamOS).
That way you have some reassurances (albeit no guarantees) about the software you install, plus a method to manually bypass those protections if you so desire.
> One of the reasons Windows flourished was the openness of the platform.
No, that's not the reason. Or at least not the openness of the _software_ platform. The reason Windows flourished was the number of IBM-compatible clones out there and the monopoly Microsoft had -and successfully campaigned to retain for many years- on said hardware. Under those conditions Windows only needed to be "good enough" to compete rather than a market leader in openness, stability, security, nor any other measure that us geeks normally consider.