"How can MS get away with putting such crap out on the market?"
I did touch on that with the "dancing bear" metaphor. The term "crap" is relative, and considering what a Microsoft operating system has to handle, I think many of the complaints are on the order of bitching about a left-hand audio system speaker not working on a Porsche. I have had little trouble with mature Microsoft products. The key again is "mature," and again, anyone who dived into Vista (or any other major software package for that matter) the minute it came out almost has it coming.
If the Linux system can offer consumers and software vendors more than Microsoft, they'll switch. More power to them.