I don't hate Microsoft. I disagree with the philosophy behind their product and I find that their software is often buggy in obvious ways, difficult to use for obvious reasons, and difficult to modify without causing needless performance or stability issues.

Put simply: if your software company had billions in the bank and some of the brightest programmers on Earth, would you be satisfied with a crappy product? Would you expect your customers to be satisfied with it?

Once upon a time I was happy with Netscape, but it has become a really crappy, bloated product. Ditto Realplayer. Even Windows 2000 Professional was a decent product, but Windows XP is substantially slower without being substantially better. Adobe Photoshop gets slower with every release, but it always brings something special to the table.

While you personally may have never seen your Windows PC been exploited, it happens. A lot. If you're really interested in the subject, check out www.securityfocus.com. The Editor of the site is a really sharp guy named Kevin Poulsen.