What is it that makes Microsoft's products sell? Why is it that Microsoft seems to reign supreme in our microcomputer industry? Sure, we all know that IBM and Linux are strong in the research field, and we know that Solaris had a strong following in some areas as well, but niches aren't what dominate markets. Niches are just small pockets that concentrate on specific things. We all have a tendency to think that Scientific Linux is a niche distribution, or that tomstrbt is a niche distribution... in reality Linux is a niche operating system. The same can be said about the BSDs, and Solaris, and AIX, and HPUX, and V7x86 (ad inifitum). When we look at Macintosh, there is a tendency to think that Microsoft isn't impenetrable. Why does Macintosh do well when Linux does not? After all, Linux offers more hardware support than any other OS. Well, the answers are blazingly obvious and simple.