As someone who works for a Microsoft Gold Partner, I have to say that Microsoft are one of the *least-bad* vendors to work with. Nowadays, they have a decent Partner scheme, they clearly put a lot of (money and) effort into their reseller channel and you can usually find someone sensible to speak to if you need help.

Just my 10p-worth (as a long-time Mac user & definitely non-Microsoft fan).

They should take a look at HP's or Cisco's.

Just going to the homepage is enough to give me cold sweats!

>"We've learned a lesson from Vista," she said. "We wouldn't have been able to make the step-change we have without it."<

Lesson I learned from not being offered an upgrade price from Vista is learn to love the penguin.

1) Themes make it not so awful to look at.

2) Better online security

3) Wine runs Dreamweaver 8 very nicely.

4) Open Office not so awful once you learn its peccadilloes (faster than the move from MS Office 2003 to 2007), does everything I require from it (so far).

5) Gimp replaces Photoshop (still learning so unsure if it's as good, but it opens PSD files no problems, with all layers intact).

6) Evolution replaces Outlook, not terrible but no synch with my phone... as yet. When new phone time, looking for one that works with Ubuntu.

7) Better online security.

8) Ubuntu 9.04 offers much better hardware recognition at install (inc Belkin wireless adaptor, Aiptek graphics tablet, two Epson printers and a USB mouse).

9) Everything (even Wine ran Dreamweaver) feels so much more responsive.

10) And finally, better online security.

So, congratulations Microsoft, you've pushed one loyal (albeit unwilling), customer of 27 years (MSDOS 3.3 1987) over to the dark side... and I've never been happier.

... we *NEED* that ursine creature defecating in an arboreal environment icon for stories like this!!

"Microsoft: we make partners' lives too complicated"

You do pretty much the same for your customers, too. I say "customer" as in "someone forced to use your products."