Windows is the best operating system?

[rik]

MS should do a better job in protecting us we shouldn't have to run anti-virus or compromise the functionality of Windows in order to configure a secure system.

Not their job. Produce a quality product, yes. Save us from Societies miscreants, no.

Come to think of it we should be able to choose which operating system we use without having to worry about software and hardware incompatibilities.

You can choose. Don't forget until recently if you wanted to run any Mac OS version you had to buy their hardware. Times are getting better for OS choices.

in order to keep backwards compatability with old programs

Give the people what they want.

[Kane]

compromises functionality - some programs require the registry and folder persmisions to be tweaked before they will run if at all.

You can run programs with admin privileges using a simple vbscript no need to tweak registry and folder persmisions.

[Big Booger]

You can run programs with admin privileges using a simple vbscript no need to tweak registry and folder persmisions.

The moment you mention "vbscript" to a grandmother using windows, you've lost her... that goes for about 85% of users of Windows, Mac, and so on...

Sure you can strip the balls off a bull, and call it a cow.. but the reality is, it's just stripped down bull with no balls.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Not their job. Produce a quality product, yes. Save us from Societies miscreants, no.

Alright then I'll put it another way, would you buy a house if the doors didn't lock properly and you could easilly open the Windows from the outside?

You can choose. Don't forget until recently if you wanted to run any Mac OS version you had to buy their hardware. Times are getting better for OS choices.

True, times are getting easier as far as choosing an operating system is concerned but (as far as I'm aware) you still need Apple hardware to run Mac OS X, their decision to change the architecture doesn't affect this.

Give the people what they want.

As far as computers are concerned most non techy people don't know what they want, I've heard about people being sold top-of the-range computers when all they want to do is send a few emails.

MS could easily solve their dilemma between keeping backwards compatibility and security if they wanted to, they could do what Apple have done, even if they break some old programs by adding modern security features in Vista they could provide an emulation mode to make old stuff compatible.

You can run programs with admin privileges using a simple vbscript no need to tweak registry and folder persmisions.

As Big Booger rightly said most people won't know how to do that, not to mention you're also compromising security by running things as admin, also being prompted for a password every time would be really annoying.