[tikhonj]

The main reason Linux is not prevalent on the desktop has nothing to do with openness--it is just basically impossible to buy a new computer with Linux.

The reason it is impossible to buy a computer with Linux is largely Mircorosfts wildly anti-competitive behavior in the past. Note how much work and marketing it took Apple to carve out a non-trivial market share--there are no companies pushing Linux adoption nearly as heavily.

There are too many confounding factors affecting Linux on the desktop to use it to judge open technology in general.

[kristiandupont]

That may be true but the assertion was that open systems tend to win. If you add the premise "except when there are external factors", there is really no argument left.