most of your perspectives are pretty much the same as mine too. I don't care who copied who, The conversation may be politcial for those two - but for me - i will point out when someone is posting mis-information, whether it is about microsoft, linux MacOSX or whatever - which both Vincent and Luke_wolf are doing in a big way. many of luke's history is incorrect and totally false. Vincent i am almost dead-positive has never even dealt with Apple personally - so shouldn't be commenting on how they treat their own customers - and it is clear both them don't have much experience with Apple.
I said right off the hop MS does gaming best. OSX has got ease of use, good for multimedia, and very few problems arise in day to day usage....
...but for me, Linux is the best hands down - cause i don't care about usability - if i did gentoo and Arch wouldn't have been my last 2 linux installs

..., im not a gamer and can the my system to behave any way i want. (that awesome customization you speak of).
cheerz!