[bvw]

The games are nice, but as to what locks MS on the desktop it is, IMO, Word and PowerPoint. You simply need to have them on an MS platform to do business. It makes MS-Windows and Office a compelled sale.

After those two I'd count Lotus Notes as another reason many are strongly motivated to MS Windows. Is there a linux version of Lotus Notes compatible wih the MS-windows version?

[ShadowAce]

Is there a linux version of Lotus Notes compatible wih the MS-windows version?

Well, it's more Outlook-ish, but Ximian Evolution is very full-featured and nice. Contacts, calendar, etc.

BTW--OpenOffice and StarOffice pretty much have caught up to MS Office. I use OpenOffice at work, which is exclusively MS Office. No one knows the difference, and I've been able to open, read, and edit Word and Excel files (even with macros).

[tortoise]

The games are nice, but as to what locks MS on the desktop it is, IMO, Word and PowerPoint. You simply need to have them on an MS platform to do business. It makes MS-Windows and Office a compelled sale.

VMWare. The best of both worlds.