According to Microsoft, more than 400 million people were using Windows 9x and more than 70 million were using Windows 2000 and Windows NT when the company launched Windows XP. (These numbers don't refer to licenses, but to actual users.) The company also revealed recently that approximately 350 million Microsoft Office users abound worldwide. These figures compare with about 15 million Macintosh users and a similar number of Linux users. If you wonder where the term "monopoly" came from, these numbers probably have something to do with it. Ditto on why getting through to Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) takes so long.