Therefore to the avoid the punishment the customers don't buy the smaller company's product?
What punishment? There was no requirement to buy Windows 3.1. They could stick with Win3.0 or not use Windows at all. If MS wants you to run a pure MS system in order to get the benefits of Windows, that's their choice because it's their product. If you want the benefits of Windows, you run it the way they want you to, or you find other solutions (Apple, GEOS, Amiga, OS/2, etc). It's one of the reasons I went with other platforms at varying times in the past (Apple, OS/2, and Linux). What is it about computer hobbyists that make them think that just because they WANT something, it must be true.
And eventually the courts did too.
The courts say a lot of things, but that doesn't make them right. Look at the various anti-2nd arguments that the courts have upheld.
Let's see now: say you're a cancer patient and Merik Pharmaceuticals has the best treatment drug. But that drug is set up to poison you if it detects other medicines by another competing drug manufacturer. So what, just don't buy Merik?
Your analogy doesn't work. First, MS doesn't own the best product in any category. Second, Win3.1 didn't break anything, it simply wouldn't work in the presence of DR-DOS. A better medical analogy is the average quality drug becoming a placebo in the presence of other, competing, drugs.
Do you understand that in order to pull this stunt off, MS had to violate contract law with the buyers of Windows? When you buy software, you are supposed to be reasonably sure that the software doesn't have DELIBERATE defects (otherwise known as sabotage, vandalism, etc.).
It's been a long time since I've read one, but I don't recall EULAs guaranteeing any functionality. Short of MS claiming compatability with DR-DOS and THEN not delivering (prior versions not evidence of future versions' intended interroperability), I don't see how there's any contract between users and MS regarding the platform Windows would support.
Consumers have always been free to choose alternatives if a product didn't meet their needs.
Chris