> As things stand now Linux is not a serious competitor.
No. You've got it /entirely/ the wrong way round. Windows is now playing
catch-up to Linux. "Vista" is about 6 years behind any current Linux
distro. Windows is *not* a serious competitor - it's a poorly written
computer game.
You're also looking at your "problems" from a distorted perspective. You
received your computer with a pre-installed Windows. When it came time to
upgrade to Linux, you actually had to do some work yourself!
When it comes to re-formatting your hard drive and re-installing Windows,
you'll have *more* problems than you'll _ever_ find with a modern Linux
distro. You probably won't have all the driver disks for your hardware.
So you'll be bitching and complaining to some Windows newsgroup about how
hard Windows is to install, and most of your hardware doesn't work
properly... Won't you?