I use Microsoft's OS, browsers, and office system because it basically works, and more importantly, because I have a pretty good chance that the people I exchange documents with will have it too. When I buy a piece of software, my odds are really good that it will work on Windows. I'm running Windows 7 because I figured my programs would be requiring it eventually, and I might as well get into it before I got too busy on something to deal with it later. My spare desktop and laptop run Windows XP and Office 2003, and I see no reason to change. I have a newer version of Office on my main machine so I can use "x" files if I have to, but I still save all my files in 2003 mode.

The rest of my family use Macs, and they just plain work too. I'm not one of those "Mac/PC" fanatics. My stuff needs a PC, theirs doesn't. That's all there is to it.

But then, I'm a "user," not a "programmer," as they say in the system. Might be a different thing when you have to construct the stuff.