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The way Bill Gates sees it, a market share of nearly 90 percent isn't a monopoly. In heated exchanges with the Justice Department, Microsoft's chairman has insisted that Windows has plenty of formidable competitors. Ralph Nader doesn't agree.

In early March, Nader and the Consumer Project on Technology asked six PC makers, including Compaq, Dell, and Gateway, to offer customers the option of a non-Windows operating system such as Linux (a UNIX variant) or BeOS (a newcomer to the PC platform). At press time, the CPT had not received formal responses from any of the PC vendors.

If you've never heard of these Windows alternatives, you're not alone. In 1997, according to market research company International Data Corporation, Windows owned an 86.3 percent share of the market for desktop operating systems. And unless the Department of Justice succeeds in halting the Windows 98 juggernaut, Microsoft could very well claim the remaining 13.7 percent of the market.

Why should you care about market share? Software vendors focus their development efforts on the most popular platforms, so that's where you'll see the most new programs. Moreover, using a minority operating system invites all kinds of compatibility problems when you want to share files and data with associates and customers.