I can see why! For one Apple should have used AMD instead of the overpriced and somewhat behind Intel as the maker of there Central Processing Unit. AMD makes a fare better chip than Intel and I am beginning to think that Intel has fallen so far behind AMD that soon they them selves like ATI will be no more. ATI is still alive but is now owned by the best CPU maker in the world AMD.

I've been using XP since it came out back in 2001, and the only time I've ran into any real problem (blue screen, etc) is when I, myself, have tried to use poor drivers.   These things can take any OS down though, be it Windows, MacOS or *nix, that's just the way they are.   And as far as security goes,  I've only ran into 2 viruses in 5 years on my system.  

I've used quite a few Linux distros also, and even other OS's like BeOS and so on.  In the end though, I just find myself back on Windows, it works for me and I have no complaints.

I encourage everyone that reads the column to apply real pressure on Apple to allow MacOS to run on commodity PCs.  Apple's vanity has blinded them to the fact that if they did released MacOS for commodity PC, yes they would loose on the hardware front, but would gain overnight success on the operating system front.

Can anyone really argue that Apple hardware is that much better than IBM, Gateway, or Dell?  I would say "no better".

MacOS, however, is a real viable operating system threat to Microsoft and would gain significant market share if allowed to compete on the same playing field.

We need competition in this space!