I think your point about MS inheriting status from IBM is key here. MS has always been primarily a business proposition. Bill, in presenting IBM a DOS he essentially bought off the shelf, posited the entire enterprise as 'a deal' to be struck.
What OSX and Linux both present is a vision, an ideal of how things should be. That ultimately is what is absent in Redmond.
What OSX and Linux both present is a vision, an ideal of how things should be. That ultimately is what is absent in Redmond.