Dear, oh me. I see the board is still swamped with queries better dealt with elsewhere. No wonder people can't find this board when they do need it.

To the matter in hand.

I accept that MS Windows does a reasonable job of holding our hands etc etc.

But I just finished updating a long-neglected PCLinuxOS laptop (143 files), and an XP desktop last updated a fortnight ago.

The XP machine needed three windows updates, but of course, I had to update the security software and Firefox addons.

PCLos happily updated itself and allowed me to return to surfing the internet and messing about with files and things. No restart required; a new version of Firefox was installed, so I did restart that (goodness, but FF5 is quick on this machine.)

This took less time than the updates on the XP machine which, surprise, surprise, needed a restart. And it didn't patronise me ("Updates are ready for your computer. Click here to download these updates" - which updates did it think I might imagine needed doing???) or irritate me (that schoolmarmish, "You must restart your computer..."  - frantic and bossy urgency from an outfit which produces only a few updates, and those rarely more than once a month.)

The truly terrifying thing is that I can't quite bring myself to wipe the Windows machines. This despite the fact that for my purposes, I've yet to find a compelling reason to use Windows rather than Linux for anything.

But it really is getting harder and harder to see MS as the easier OS - although I readily concede that Linux occasionallyinvolves me in intense googling and swearing - but then continues to just work for ages before the next oops.

Talk about the power of the Dark Forces of Marketing (and the stinginess of some of us who've paid for the stuff with the computer, so hate to bin it.)