Don't get me wrong I don't dislike windows but I think it lacks a soul... The trouble is that most people think they simply need a OS that does the job : Read email, Browse the web, Store their family snaps on... And for the most part its true. The sad thing is if your forced to sit in front of something for 8 hours a day that lacks a soul it will slowly crush yours. But its not all bad, Windows has the best driver support bar none... no one touches it. The remarkable thing is that it works at all with the myriad of expansion cards, motherboards, graphics cards, monitors. Its an engineering tour de force. I'd never thought I'd say this but perhaps there's something to Apple's approach of keeping a tight control on the central hardware platform... sure allow third parties to create the printers, tablets and other peripherals but keep the heart of the system proprietary...

I think Windows biggest problem is the huge release gaps between releases... 3 years. Thats a life time in development. By the time they've laid out their plans and set to work the market place has changed. Since XP has been released the web experience has become richer and more interactive and the need for a huge bloated OS stuffed with functionality that few will find seems slightly dated. I guess Microsoft will argue that they have a huge customer base to migrate and its a hellishly hard job... well thats true to a degree and I would have agreed with them 8 years ago but now... Now Im not so sure. Seemingly the required PC spec for a project Longhorn would pretty much eliminate the need for any migration at all... Only the latest generation machines will provide the necessary horsepower to drive its rich 3d UI.

I don't think the open-source has it quite right either.., sure their release cycles come every 6 months and they can change and innovate at a much higher rate than Windows but sadly it lacks some of the cohesion of the markets main players... Also they have to sort out the memory bloat thats occurred in the last few years... some of the apps are massive and I don't mean in terms of functionality. But having said that for all of if its piece meal delivery KDE, Gnome, XFe and Enlightenment definitely have soul. More importantly they flexibility and customizability allow them to reflect the personality of the person using them.

I've come late to Apple and thats a regret... It has feel of an OS that someone genuinely cares about. Things are intuitive, well designed and pleasant to look at without going overboard. It feels rock solid and dependable and most import for an Unix head like myself at its heart beats a Mach micro kernel. If you've not tried the experience give it ago.