I know there is no end to this discussion so I'll just put in my 2cents and GTFO.
As a user of Windows systems in the 90s, the so called "openness" was precisely the reason I moved to using Linux. Most software available for Windows, in those days was crap, and I as a user needed something that worked, not mostly but, all the time. Linux gave me that. Even if there was just one office suite (star office, remember?), it worked.
After using Linux for about a decade or so, I moved to OS X, since Linux wasn't really going anywhere. The fabled desktop linux wasn't coming and everything seemed in a limbo.
OS X and Apple, for all it's faults, works, for the most part, for the user and that's why the platform is popular.
We guys here are talking and thinking with our developer hats, but users think very differently.
As a user of Windows systems in the 90s, the so called "openness" was precisely the reason I moved to using Linux. Most software available for Windows, in those days was crap, and I as a user needed something that worked, not mostly but, all the time. Linux gave me that. Even if there was just one office suite (star office, remember?), it worked.
After using Linux for about a decade or so, I moved to OS X, since Linux wasn't really going anywhere. The fabled desktop linux wasn't coming and everything seemed in a limbo.
OS X and Apple, for all it's faults, works, for the most part, for the user and that's why the platform is popular.
We guys here are talking and thinking with our developer hats, but users think very differently.