Such a concisely eloquent example makes me (almost) wish I'd taken the cue from the early IW daze, and the "OS/2 zealots stacked Our Survey! | Sandy Reed" BS -- and gone right-then with a Winner; Damn the popular mediocrity!

Almost.. but it's too late, now, for moi --
though I imagine that driving an OS/2 system, surrounded by all that toy s/ware, constantly screaming for attention - must be a little bit ~ using a Cisitalia or a SSKL-Mercedes as a daily driver. Let the yokels Stare .. and Wonder. And, predictably - shake pointy-little heads.

It's also a bit reassuring on a Human level, that yes, in fact: some group really did manage to make something digital: This Stable. Never mind that bizness and Ohms Law-iggerant 'entrepreneurs' cannot even grasp such a concept - and will always opt for eye-candy over substance.

So it isn't The Class, [humans] who fucked up this entire program to-date!
It was merely the noisy, meta-avaricious sub-class of Vulture Capitalist exploiters, premeditated panderers to this perpetuation of mass Ignorance.
For self-profit alone, at any cost to society.

(Well, I guess that's Some consolation, in the long run :-/ Sorta. Philosophically speaking.)

So then, as a perennial-User, never apt to invest as much mental labor (Again!) into any. thing. with a CPU, as I happily invest in other Interests - 'My OS/2 Substitute' shall likely eventually be some future OSX model.. even with the lesser stability (as may well suffer ~deterioration via new glued-on eye-candy, I fear.)

Your small essay at least lets me put the whole sordid mess into perspective - gracias.