You're missing my point, but that might by my fault for not explaining it right. You see, I'm not saying other platforms don't have some the same problems (although to a much lesser extent, statistically speaking), I'm saying it's Microsoft's fault that we accept these faults to be normal, find them acceptable.

Furthermore, I don't care that there are less viruses for Mac or Linux 'cause they're less popular platforms. There are less viruses, and that's what matters. Plus, their architecture is less prone to worms and trojans that don't rely on stupid user interactions - but even if it weren't... less viruses man, woohoo!! I don't care that you have free spyware and virus protection programs... you still need the bloody things and they're still eating CPU and memory. It's inherent to the type of job they have to do. Every bit and byte is double checked by memory resident programs that need to reference huge chunks of sample data to detect malicious pieces of code. There's just so much optimizing that you can do to these programs and it's not nearly enough.

You say I exaggerate the problems, which might be true in a way, but you ("the people" in general) are becoming more and more blind for the atrocious pieces of software that get shoveled down your collective throats. You settle for "good enough" instead of looking for something that's actually good.

Look at it this way: you say that most people's problems stem from the fact that they don't know how to take care of their systems or from the fact that they "need more RAM" or something to that effect. You are right, they probably could keep their system in near-mint condition by maintaining them better and upping the specs. Or they could install Ubuntu on the bloody thing and save them some money and the trouble (how irrelevant you might deem it, for me it's a hassle) of "maintaining their systems properly".

Three things I'd like to address specifically - although I hate point-by-point rebuttals 'cause they tend to miss the bigger picture:
1. About defragging: I don't know for sure about HFS+ (Apple's filesystem), but ExtFS (as mentioned above) is designed to not need defragmentation unless in the most utterly ridiculously extreme circumstances. That's called good engineering - a solution to a problem instead of the stopgap measure that is defragmenting your drive. I _assume_ HFS+ is the same 'cause there's no defragmentation tool included in OSX, I have nothing else to back that up except for my own experience with the OS, a nearly full drive and an install that has been put through it's paces for more than 8 months that's still as snappy as the first day I started using it.

2. About Spam: my fault, should've explained that better. Most spam comes from e-mail lists that have been harvested by viruses that target Outlook Express. It's not Windows specific, but still a Microsoft problem. To be fair, you are also vulnerable to this if your run Mac or Linux and your address appears in some Outlook Express user's address book, so it's not something you can easily protect yourself from.

3. Seriously? Is Word bundled with Windows these days? Or is Wordpad so much better than TextEdit? As far as I know, only some (most) Linux distro's ships with a real Office Suite for free by default, no?

Look, I'm not saying Mac or Linux are for everyone, they're not. But they are probably the better choice for a lot more people than those that are currently using them. And the sole reason is 'cause people think Microsoft's products are "good enough". I'd like that to change in the near future and that's the reason why I devote small pieces of my time (like now) to write about the reasons you might want to at least try another OS. Hell, you can try Ubuntu from a live USB dongle for free without installing anything on your PC if you like - where's the risk in that?

You know what annoys me about Microsoft's products? The fact that they have indoctrinated people into believing the current state of software quality is acceptable or normal even.

Found a bug? Good on ya, we'll release a patch "soon".

What, got a virus? Ooh, you should've been more careful then, shouldn't ya?

What do you mean, you're receiving spam e-mails? Of course you are, we sold your e-mail addresses to penis enlargement firms, didn't you know?

Did you try turning it on and off again? No no, it does that some times, you just need to reboot. Just like your TV, Radio, Mobile Phone, Car, Central Heating system, and so forth, right?

What? You thought you could just buy Windows, install it and be up and running? You idiot! What about anti-spyware programs, virus scanners and firewalls? Yes, of course you need to buy those too, and get subscriptions to them, you silly person!

Yes, we know it slows down after a while, but have you tried defragging? Yes, it does take hours to finish, but there's just no other way. What? Your friend has a Mac which doesn't slow down and there's not even a program to defrag it? Now those are just tall tales boy, stop spreading those lies! No no no, this hasn't been possible since 2001, you're dreaming.

So you want to open your text document with something else than Microsoft Word? Why?? We didn't know there was anything else out there, sorry...

I hate it when people go "Haven't you heard of defragging, anti-virus programs, anti-spyware programs, rebooting, installing newer drivers, and all that crap?". Yes I have, and they're the main reasons why I choose Linux and OSX above Windows.

I'm curious though, why? User interface-wise, I find OSX to be leaps and bounds beyond any version of Windows I've used (all but 7, that is).

What do you want to use it for? Are there specific programs that you really need? If not, then make the switch. I've switched completely away from windows since about 2002 or so (although I initially switched to Linux, later picked up a Mac as well) and never looked back. I did buy a Gamecube, Wii and PS3 for my gaming needs though . Windows still has an insane amount of games exclusive to that OS.