I'm not nearly as much of a tech nerd as I used to be but I've used Windows (and also owned various MAC's and Apple's and Commodore's) since the first version and it has always been complete and utter hell.
First you were using a trumped up version of DOS and there were command line prompts and other crap you needed to know. In fact if you owned the DOS version of a videogame, you were promised higher performance than the Windows mode, LOL.
Then we got into some later versions and they were all various shades of bad. Eventually Windows got gaming and performance computing right and despite being a nightmare to run, they were the high performance platform of choice (for commercial, home personal computing) and still are in many areas.
But Windows (name your version) was always a nightmare to run. Buggy, virus prone, glitchy, in nearly ever present need of a reinstallation...
For well over a decade. Still it ran the most software and promised high performance in gaming.
But now, since Windows 7, I have had the most enjoyable experience. I bought this laptop last October, installed with Windows 7 and I have not had one virus, crash, bluescreen, nothing. I close the lid and never ever shut down or restart, unheard of, even up to XP... and it just works reliably every time with just a few seconds reboot. I absolutely love it.
Same goes for my Windows phone (Samsung Focus), rock solid OS there.
And now IE 9 comes out. I know I'm supposed to be all into alternative OS's, but 9 seems to have some nice refinements. It scrolls back entirely, giving you the full screen of whatever you are working on, until you mouse into the area's where there might be menu's. I haven't delved into all it provides but so far from the outset seems very slick indeed. And they seem to be taking privacy issues seriously with the new "Inprivate" browser setting.
I feel like there was a time I might be interested in trying a MAC again, but I have to tip my hat and say Microsoft is rapidly re-earning my loyalty with great, easy to use, RELIABLE (for once) OS.
Bravo.
