system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How was Bill Gates “Windows” OS different from Mac’s and Linux/Unix OS and what made it become so successful?
gpt
You have the order a bit backwards.

The real benefit of DOS, and later windows, was from hardware, not the OS (at least in how it grew to start).

DOS (and then windows) ran on any IBM compatible PCs, which were the standard and produced in huge quantities. Macs only worked on specific Mac-made hardware, and were relegated to a niche market at best.  The sheer volume of IBM compatabile PCs was huge-- so everyone wrote programs for Dos and Windows, and they are pretty user friendly to use, and well, everything worked on it, and everything was made for it.  It dominated the market.

Linux/Unix systems have for the most part once we start the DOS/Windows eras, were relegated to specific, generally specially trained  IT uses, not for the general user.