I think you nailed it in your first sentence. I ran Ubuntu for about 9 months before I switched to a Windows 7 RC release. Why? Well, the software I wanted t

I think you nailed it in your first sentence. I ran Ubuntu for about 9 months before I switched to a Windows 7 RC release. Why? Well, the software I wanted to run isn't available for linux, or requires a virtual environment to run it (and OSX doesn't run without hacks on custom-built hardware). And the "free" desktop software equivalents? Well, they are just about worth their price (with some exceptions). Most developers in the open source community never finish their desktop products. And just about no one in the commercial software industry makes a desktop app for linux natively. Put simply, you can't even pay for something good. Just try finding a decent photo manager for linux with any degree of polish. F-spot/Digikam? Basically hobby projects -- no finishing at all -- random bugs in fricken obvious places (do they run their own software?). How 'bout Picasa? Ok, more professional, but oh yeah, it's a windows app running on Wine. Pathetic :-) </rant>