How about a comparison on merit, not marketing 1506

So who wants to make a business out of "appealing to computer professionals"? Why do you resent the people who want to make a business out of appealing to the mbutt market?

So don't use XP Home. I don't.

Sure. But I don't think you are correct with the term "computer professional". Too legitimate. What you are really describing is the opportunistic techno-dweeb trying to rip off the ignorant. They hate Windows because it makes things to be too simple to permit them to charge a lot for doing next to nothing.

Doesn't bother me a bit. Windows has thrived in the face of Unix for almost 15 years now and it will continue to thrive in the face of a generic unix like linux. The problem for linux on the desktop is not the price charged by Microsoft to the OEM for a copy of Windows, it is rather a lack of visibility of linux to the consumer who won't accept a subsbreastute that can't be described to them in any understanable terms.

There are thousands of tons of gold contained in alll the beach sand on the planet, too, but there are trillions of tons of worthless material mixed with the gold. That is the same problem that linux faces in your example and the linux advocates don't have enough money to change that. For that matter, Microsoft doesn't have enough money to change that either. Fortunately for them, they are in the driver's seat and don't have to change anything.