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Great article. I have been Windows user since 3.1 and a Windows hater since Windows 95. 95 was such a complete POS. By the time 98 came out I figured Microsoft owed me several thousand hours of lost time between the blue screen of death, and seeing ‘you have installed windows for the very first time’ for the zillionth time :-). When I heard that XP was going to be limited to one install per PC and maybe even limited upgrades to the PC it had been put on, I turned to Linux for my home PC. However, it was always necessary to keep a copy of Windows so I could dual boot in order to use proprietary software only available in Windows, and of course, I was stuck with whatever the IT department at work mandated for my work desktop.
I tried a Mac at home for a while, and found it no better than Windows for other reasons, I had my Mac when Apple was concentrating on developing their I pods and I phones, and it seemed that nobody cared about Mac software anymore, or just assumed that because you had a Mac you loved paying silly prices and doing everything Steve’s way.
The thing that never ceased to amaze me was how Microsoft always gets it wrong, they were behind the curve on the internet, network security, mobile devices and phones, and yet they still dominate the business world, mostly because IT departments who can’t even bother to learn the latest version of Windows let alone a new system.
When corporate finally moves everything into the cloud, along with browser – cloud based apps such as Google Office, the next thing that will happen is that employees will be ‘allowed’ to bring their own PCs to work, which will soon devolve into will be required to, much the way businesses are allowing/requiring employees to supply their own cell phones, which immediately resulted in the switch from Blackberrys to Iphones. A clever manufacturer who paid attention to the cell phone wars will develop the ‘cool’ but business capable user friendly office PC for the worker paying for it, and Windows will go the way of the wind up phonograph.

So long Windows, and the never ending updates (you couldn’t get right the first time?), the mandatory re-boots, the click everything three times, including ‘are you sure?’, and finding there is yet another must click box hidden away somewhere, good bye scammers and malware, false alarms for legitimate stuff with an expired ‘certificate’, Microsoft DRM gestapo, etc., I won’t miss you when you are finally gone .