Well, cars and PCs are a lot alike. Take open standards. This term isn't too far from the idea of the open road. Everyone has to agree to a certain set of rules.
All cars require wheels, brakes and steering, among other things.
Where the comparison ends, however, is that each carmaker can fiddle with the components to make its models dominate the road. That's called healthy competition. Sun didn't like Microsoft's extended embrace of Java, or maybe got mad at those tests that showed Java running better on PCs running Microsoft's Virtual Machine than on its own Solaris boxes. Whatever - Sun sued. If I souped up my car, I might void my warranty, but GM, Ford or Audi wouldn't sue me for it.