Hungry Howies vs Microsoft

.. in a way. I've been thinking this over for a long time now, and so i figured i'd share it. I hate little ceasars. I honestly cannot stand it. And the thing is: i guess i dont even hate it because the pizza's no good. I dislike it because the pizza's not good. But surely, there are places with mediocre pizza, that i do not hate. I hate little ceasar's because of the way it is forced on everyone, in such a passive way. err.. People don't eat little ceasar's because it's good. They eat it because it's convenient. There is no faster, more inconvenient way to get a large pizza. So by making it cheap and convenient, little ceasars wins by selling shitty pizza. How do i respond?
I eat at hungry howies. At hungry howies, i can get a medium ham pizza with butter cheese/garlic flavored crust for roughly the same price of a large at LC. But believe you me. I would sooner make that purchase any day of the week. In fact, i do it several days per week.
What does this have to do with microsoft? EVERYTHING. Well nothing really, but there are similarities. Why do people use msoft products? For the most part, because they're convenient. Windows is (for all intents and purposes) the only operating system that will come preloaded on a Pc in the US, and school or work provides microsoft office...
How does one respond? By using alternatives that are actually better products, even if they require a special initiative to get going. Obviously the biggest battle is on the operating system front.
I use Ubuntu(www.ubuntulinux.com) as do thousands of other happy computer users. In all honesty though, i don't think it's ready to be shipped on computers. I think there are still a few big steps that need to be taken for most people to use it, but i forsee that happening soonish.
Okay that been said, one can see how it's not obvious to switch away from microsoft products.. and certainly one shouldnt do so just because something is a msoft product. Let's look at other products though that compete with microsoft:
From the open source community, we have firefox. Personally, i only use firefox. Most people i know use it, and everyone i know who uses it is extremely pleased with it. Many users don't even know/understand that it is open source.
Thenthere is OpenOffice.Org. I use OO.o for one, because it runs on ubuntu, and also because i think it will eventually be the standard. Google has recently hired programmers specifically to work on the suite. Other companies have already donated tons of money/work to it, and it is only getting better. Hopefully with google's help, it will get the push it needs to be really competative with office.
Obviously there are many more points to make, but i've said enough... I hate little ceasars and i hate microsoft. I dont hate little ceaser's pizza, and i dont really hate windows(plays warcraft and runs photoshop) but i cannot stand being forced into using subpar product merely because it is easier to come by.
moral of the story:
Open source software can only get better. It is always getting better, and though it may be behind right now, proprietary software simply won't be able to keep up the pace forever, and the community will come up with what she needs on her own.
..and in a perfect world, everyone would eat only good pizza.