Letter: Why we use Windows

Sir: It is ironic that The Independent should apparently be oblivious to the effect on a market of a single dominant player. Bill Gates already wields considerably more power in the computer industry than Rupert Murdoch is ever likely to achieve in the media. And rather than innovate Microsoft spends, in the last three years alone having purchased outright more than 30 technology companies.

It is extremely naive to believe that any monopoly can be benign, even beneficial. Microsoft could achieve sole control both of the desktop, which determines the software you use, and of access to the Internet, which dictates the information you see. In an age of information, control of information is the most dangerous monopoly of all.

ROGER HOUGHTON

Bath