"Why doesn't free trump expensive? Every Microsoft product has a
free, open source counterpart created by dedicated programmers who
loathe everything the company stands for. The free stuff is darn
good. Yet companies and individuals continue to buy billions of
dollars worth of Microsoft products.
"To be fair, Microsoft software is sometimes better than the
competition's. But quality isn't the only factor: The company has
spent years digging moats around its castle, building digital walls
to keep other vendors out and users in. One of the biggest factors
is its control over proprietary data formats..."
