Holy moly. If I didn't know better I would think you were my boyfriend. He is running a Linux machine, cannot tolerate MS, in any form. I got a chuckle, because the above quote is something I hear regularly.
Since most programs are designed around Windows or Mac OS', I stick with Windows. I tried Linux a while back and it was OK, but I never could get my printer/scanner to install properly in Linux. There were some other issues that elude me at the moment, too. I liked how fast Linux was as compared to Windows and I could do email, surf the web, word processing, etc. but it just wasn't as inclusive as I prefer.
Hell, Windows 7 requires a MINIMUM of 1 GB RAM (preferably 2 GB) and a 1 GHz processor. Windows memory and processor requirements keep increasing every time they bring out a new version. Linux can still run on a severely outdated computer.
bkg, I realize that M$ is one of the BIG targets. Hell, they've been targets of unscrupulous people and M$ haters for YEARS!!! I guess where MY concern might lie is why doesn't M$ do some decent testing before releasing an OS that is full of holes?? It's been that way since Windows 3.11. They ALWAYS wind up issuing security fixes long after the fact. I can't tell you how many security issues that XP has had and it's been one of the BEST OS' that M$ has ever released until recently.