Yes, Microsoft really has some nice products. I love my window XP Pro. I also love the look and feel of my VFP 7/8 accounting application. The windows graphics and fonts with smooth edges are the best in the business. The biggest drawback with Microsoft products are the cost of its OS and apps, and the upgrades it pushes onto consumers, rather than having the consumer pull the upgrade in when they are ready.

Linux is making progress, but is still best suited for web, mail, file server duties. Linux biggest advantages are low cost and ease of maintenance with little hassle over licensing.

The most capable OS, and the OS against which all the others are measure is Sun's Solaris.

All the systems, OS/s, and languages have different options, especially when it comes to web base applications, and each has its advantages and disadvantages, but from an overall basic point of view they are all the same. It reminds me a little of the old advertising duels between different aspirins. Each claimed to be stronger, better, faster, more gentle, etc, but when analyzed they were all identical. This is the perfect environment for Microsoft to succeed, because of its Marketing muscle.

LelandJ