What would our lives be like if Linux never appeared?

On August 25, 1991, two major events worth remembering happened on this day:

The Linux kernel later had its own mascot: a penguin, which we affectionately called Tux. For years, Linus joked that he chose a penguin as the mascot because he was once bitten by one. He also said that he "suffered from a rare disease called penguinitis. Penguinitis allows me to stay awake at night, and this is undoubtedly a huge gift."

Is this story true? We assume it is true, because according to the butterfly effect, it may be this small incident that ultimately brought Linux this huge wealth to the world.

If this young Finn had never been bitten by a penguin, he might not have suffered from "penguinitis". Then, lacking a clear mind at night, he might have been working hard for life like the rest of us, without being able to build the Linux kernel. .

In fact, he might become completely disgusted with software engineering and end up becoming a dentist.
This way, Linux will never appear.
What would the world be like without Linux?
What would the world be like without Linux? How will our daily lives be affected?
With this wide-open mind, we will make assumptions along the way.

Obviously, Tux Racer, a free game, cannot exist anymore, but this is only a very small part of the difference. But the difference is the difference, and here the two worlds begin to diverge.

Before the birth of Linux, Windows and MacOS had always lacked stability advantages - "Sorry, a system error occurred" and "Blue Screen of Death" often troubled every user. In fact, it was precisely because of the emergence of Linux that Microsoft and Apple began to pay attention to stability, because they needed to come up with products that had decisive advantages over this open source system.
So, the world without Linux will become very scary.

And everyone will definitely notice that in this world without Linux, comic fonts will become the only default fonts and be used everywhere - yes, that's what the original system did.
Let’s continue the discussion.

Strictly speaking, activation systems like Windows have gradually disappeared from real life. But if there was no Linux, would Microsoft really be merciful and provide such an option?
In addition, without Linux, Richard Stallman's "Four Freedoms" theory would have no breeding ground at all - because he would lose his stable job and instead struggle for survival.

In order to simplify the understanding process, I would like to explain my thoughts on the topic "What if Linux never existed" in a conversational way.
You: "Please wait. Are you trying to say that if Linux hadn't been bitten by a penguin, then streaming TV wouldn't be able to run smoothly, email would be replaced by Microsoft's Pass-A-Note, which is known for its response timeouts, and computers would Requires multiple activations every day, the Internet will crash, and people will completely abandon open source? "
Me: "It seems so"
You: "Isn't that a bit exaggerated? ?”
Me: “Maybe. But if you don’t agree, you might as well prove me wrong.”
That’s my conclusion. Therefore, I would like to thank Linux for its twenty-five years of development - its existence has made our world less stupid and less bad.