Re:"The market is softening" (Score 1)

The Linux system (using Linux in its broadest sense) is explicitly a kernel wrapped later in a GUI. Generalizing somewhat, Windows 9x was designed from the GUI inwards, since the GUI was much more important to the market than the kernel. The different strengths and weaknesses of the two systems derive partly from the difference in the approaches: Linux is more stable, Windows 9x is easier to use. So far, so obvious. But here Win2k derives its advantage: its kernel was designed separately from the existing Windows 9x GUI that it fortuitously inherited, meaning that it has many of the advantages of a stable, tightly designed kernel while having an easier to use interface than Linux systems.