Facebook is the new Microsoft, but that may not be so bad.

> Microsoft led the dawn of the personal computer and Facebook did the equivalent for the Web

Puhleeze, really. Facebook did not in any way shape or form lead the 'dawn of the web', at best they launched a very successful social network.

The web is far larger than facebook and always will be.

>When one system dominates a particular domain and locks users in, problems seem to naturally ensue. Unfortunately for privacy advocates, an open Linux-like system will have much more trouble coexisting with Facebook.

There are countless open source packages in this domain and countless people that run them or use them. Just how I like it, decentralized.

For example: Reddit, Status.net, Buddypress/Wordpress, Pligg, Elgg