The openness of the PC platform was something of an accident. The home microcomputers and the early Macs had their OS in ROM. There were competing PC operating systems (DR-DOS, DESQview, OS&#x2F;2, etc) but Microsoft managed to kill off all the commercial competition.<p>But that was all pre-&quot;web 1.0&quot;. Once computers started becoming routinely networked, we ended up with the malware problem which has driven us here. The user is in no position to accurately assess the safety of software, so as you say it&#x27;s not such a bad choice to pick a locked platform to avoid malware.<p>The situation is an uncomfortable duopoly between the semi-open Android and locked-down Apple ecosystems. How long will this remain stable? I don&#x27;t know.