I have a Dell laptop that I dual boot into Windows and Linux. Linux is where I do all my software development. I use Windows for photo editing, watching Netflix, and playing video games. I like having the complete separation of work and play.
Too bad Windows refuses to cooperate. A few months ago, my windows partition died when explorer.exe became corrupted and Windows crashed on boot. The only solution was to reinstall Windows. So, I backed up all my files, extracted my license keys, got an install CD from work, and reinstalled everything from scratch. It was a time consuming process, but mostly straight forward – Windows destroyed my boot loader forcing me to reinstall Linux, but I had been meaning to upgrade Ubuntu anyway.
After two full reinstalls, everything was fixed and happy for a few months. Then Windows decided my copy was a counterfeit. The problem was I installed Windows from a normal install CD but my license key is for an OEM version. I installed exactly the same version of Windows 7 Pro, but it still doesn’t recognize my license key. I contacted Microsoft support, but the best the woman on the phone could do was “Contact Dell and you’ll probably have to reinstall Windows again with an OEM CD”. No thanks. Maybe it’s time to switch to a Mac.
Canadian Veggie 
I switched to a Mac in 2008 when I decided I was spending to much time trying to make Ubuntu work than doing what I had got the computer for in the first place. (I gave up on Windows at XP) I have not loaded a great deal of software onto the MacBook Pro and what I use most often is open source – GIMP and Open Office. But Apple is not just a walled garden it is an expensive one. I have not been tempted into owning an iPad or an iPhone. Google products running Android have proved themselves and are far cheaper – I have a Nexus 4 phone and a Nexus 7 tablet, and use both. I no longer lug the heavy MacBook with me when I travel. The recent upgrade (free) to the newest version of OSX known as Mavericks has actually made my Mac slower – really slow on booting and loading web pages. Even though much of the memory and storage is not used. I am seriously thinking about buying a Chrome book next!
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