No worries, I just found the word inappropriate and I still think it was so. Since the only thing I want an OS for is managing files and running programs, I see no point in paddling up stream for the sake of it. However for geeksim's sake I've thought for long about exploring Linux in a virtual machine, only that I haven't found the free time yet.
Microsoft may not have the best products possible but if it's able to keep its near monopoly that's becase, contrarily to what its haters would say, it still serves its customers satisfactorily. The clever customers and the stupid ones. IBM didn't do that with its hardware near monopoly and now that's history, sold to the Chinese, and now IBM makes only software with a minor market share.
About security, at least Vista includes some security features (like XP SP2 included a basic inbound firewall) while at the same time remaining usable for everybody. It's easy for a Linux user to laugh at the average Windows user. But the point is that non computer savvy people have the right to use their computers, but if you face them with a VIRUS.EXE - Allow/Deny popup, they'll be calling tech support. So if Linux users like to make fun at the people who know less about computers than they do, okay do so, but at the end of the day these people who don't want to be bothered about computer knowledge will still want to use their computers nonetheless. So if Linux wants to compete with Windows (yes even being for free) for this audience, it will have to provide an OS than anyone can use just like Windows; it's haughty and wrong to laugh at them and deride them, as if they hadn't the right to use a word processor or browse the Web just because they don't know about security.
Just my $0.02
