On 14 January 2012 23:15, Michael Peel michael.peel@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
For context for my position here: I use Mac OS for my laptop, since that has all of the benefits of Linux combined with a somewhat nicer user interface. Linux is the next best thing, and I use that for my (dell) desktop. I've used Windows for many years in the past, and generally view it as being rubbish software that's not reliable in the long run (I used to have to reinstall my computer every 6 months when I was using Windows; nowadays I reboot my Mac laptop and Linux desktop with that same frequency.)
I've been using Windows almost exclusively for years and the only times I've ever had to do anything as drastic as reinstalling it have been times when I was messing around and broke it.
The one time I seriously tried to use Linux, I never got it to work properly (although that was a few years ago and I understand hardware drivers for Linux are a lot better now).
The reason Windows is used so extensively is because it's actually rather good. It works out of the box, it's easy to use and it's (fairly) reliable. (There are a few monopolistic business practices going on to prevent people switching, it's true, but it only got monopoly because it worked.)