Lol if Microsoft wasn't Microsoft we would all be using Amiga version 23, OS/7, or MacOS. Perhaps the lastest Dr.DOS 75 or who knows. People bitched about windows but still used it and bought it in droves to replace all those other operating systems. Sure Bill used tactics and hard line business deals that tossed them to the side. But I always found windows to be the best in terms of choice in cards and peripherals and games and software. Then linux came along, perhaps if it came along earlier, things would also be different. But if MS wasn't MS, umm IBM would rule? Or what if IBM didn't license the ability to Microsoft to sell their software to other vendors? The PC clone would have never been born and we'd all be stuck with Big Blue or DEC mainframes with crappy IBM PCs. Compaq would have never come about and ruin DEC or merge with HP. It's crazy when you think about it. Mac probably would have won out and stuck with proprietary networking crap and we'd all be stuck with AppleTalk. lol.
Microsoft provided open hardware standards, anyone could make something and build a driver for it.