I think the jokes really just stem from the anti-microsoft feelings (based on corporate practices), and those mainly lie in geeks or wannabe's. Show me something that EVER works flawlessly, and don't say Linux. As good as it is, it has its problems too (there's still unsupported or poorly supported hardware out there for linux).

Honestly, if you have good hardware and use the proper drivers, WinXP shouldn't give you a problem. My uptime is usually in the realm of a month at a time, and that's just because I like to reboot once in a blue moon because some update was installed or I need to leave on a trip. And I don't use my PC for fluff-work either, I write major programs (a lot of database and scientific apps) and play the occassional game.

Sure, every now and then you get a poor b@stard that uses a problematic motherboard (a particular VIA chipset comes to mind) or installs some weak software and you hear them whine about how their windows pc is unusable and that windows is a tool of the devil. But I'm sure if THOSE users with THOSE Pc's ran Linux, they'd start running into problems too (either because of hardware problems or incompitence).

I'm all up for open platforms and a *nix based core, but I go with what works and where the software is. Hell, I'd switch to OSX or linux if the apps "I" need become avaiable. But right now, Microsoft is the sweet spot of OS's; development-wise and game-wise.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

This comment was edited on Jul 24, 00:47.