As Windows users, reluctant or not, we depend on proprietary software every day. It's a single company. Microsoft. Their only goal is to make money and we are at their mercy. It's almost like an addiction and they're the dealer.
I started thinking about this recently when I read a study [PDF] about the failure to successfully implement Open Source Software at a university. One of the main issues reported was "compatibility problems" and it made me think about the users