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Jobs at every chance worked to make the Apple a closed system, both of hardware and software. The original Macintosh was designed to be totally closed, with no ability by the owner to modify or change it. The market forced Jobs to change that somewhat, but at every step his impetus has always been "closed and proprietary". In the Apple universe, Wozniak was the "wise and true" open systems guy.

Wozniak wanted to GIVE his computers away... not sell them. He was not even interested in making money. Don't give me that crap that open systems is capitalism . . . it isn't. Apple was practicing capitalism. Making a product that people wanted and selling it. . . and had NO OBLIGATION to make it open like you seem to think they did. Steve Jobs wanted to sell the original Mac for $1695, but was overruled by the CEO of the company. . . a guy he hired. . . and and it was put on the market for the SAME price IBM was selling their computer for, $2495. You make the mistake of conflating free market with open source.

Bill Gates was no "wise and true free market capitalist." Bill Gates was a pirate. . . who would steal anything that was not nailed down and even then if no one was looking. You have no clue about what made Steve Jobs great. . . or why his technologies and vision remade FIVE industries. . . without ever being a monopolist. Gates made a monopoly and acted like a monopolist. . . and was slapped down for it.

Frankly, I don't think you have a clue what a "free market capitalist" is from what you have written, and i say that from being educated as an Economist.

"Bill Gates was a pirate. . . who would steal anything that was not nailed down and even then if no one was looking."

Yup, just like Jobs. However, the difference was that Gates actually believed in and practiced competition on a scale that Jobs and Apple were incapable of or unwilling to do.

"You have no clue about what made Steve Jobs great. . . or why his technologies and vision remade FIVE industries. . . without ever being a monopolist. Gates made a monopoly and acted like a monopolist. . . and was slapped down for it.

Ah, you mean because I don't think Jobs walked on water. He didn't. He was a moral and ethical scumbag.

"Frankly, I don't think you have a clue what a "free market capitalist" is from what you have written, and i say that from being educated as an Economist."

Possibly not. I happen to think that businesses have more responsibilities than simply to "return maximum shareholder profit".

"Exact;y WHAT monopoly is that, Wonder Warthog? Computers? Cellphones? Music Players? What? How did "Apple PC was and remains a small niche player in the PC market" result in creating a company that became more valuable than Exxon Mobile or more valuable than every business in Russia or have more cash on hand than the United States Government or a greater net worth than 85 nations. . . combined? Exactly WHAT monopoly? Please elucidate. How did he enforce this monopoly? What weapon of the monopolist did he use? What companies did he force out of business through predatory low pricing?

Note that I said TRIED to establish a monopoly. Fortunately, the competition of the rest of the computer world prevented that, for the most part. But the practices of all of the technologies Apple produced were attempts to monopolize control. Jobs succeeded not by competition, but by innovation of establishing NEW market niches for computerization, and by playing them as monopolies for as long as that was possible.

But the Apple "Personal Computer" business remains a small player. "Wintel" owns the desktop and laptop computer industry as a whole. If I buy an Agilent Gas Chromatograph, or a Dionex ion chromatograph, or any other piece of scientific electronic hardware, it WILL be run by a "Wintel" computer. And this is true across the board.