Oh, I know, starkers. I think the discussion is all good. I'm just sick and tired of being accused of being ignorant about computing because I don't endorse every product Microsoft puts out.
Far be it for me to accuse you of IT bias/ignorance, etc....being IT (Intelligent Technology) is beyond me in most instances...er, well above my field of expertise.
Yeah, I'm inclined to feel similarly to you, in that MS is not the be all and end all in the world of computing. I'd like and hope to get myself a Mac in the new year...and though my first try of Ubuntu didn't quite work out, I will be installing it on a machine of its own (to save muti-booting) when that finally arrives mid-December (was supposed to have gotten it during the week, but my step-daughter and her b/f ended up not having enough room to bring it with them this trip).
Oh well, all in good time. Thing is, I have Vista off line at the moment due to a hardware issue....keeps BSODing about 10 - 15 mins into bootup. I'm certain it's down to a hardware issue (not Vista) because XP (dual boot) will also shut down if I try to run several graphic intensive apps at once. The culprit seems most likely to be my graphics card, so my (lay-by) purchase of the XFX 8800GTX will have to come sooner than originally. planned.
The truth is, I'm not even anti-Vista. I just believe that we need to be looking at the world beyond Microsoft.
It's this kind of thinking that keeps the Linux devs keep on keeping on, so keep it up...and hopefully this will inspire/incite the boys at Redmond to be more innovative & competitive.