sapporobaby:

I think in many ways you are correct. But then, from what I hear, Vista isn't a finished product either.

There are great open source projects out there ... Zimbra, Asterisk, Zenoss, SugarCRM ... you'll notice that my list is of server applications.

The Linux desktop is still comparatively immature, and for every one great project there are a hundred crap ones, although it gets better every day.

The open source model can work, but for products like the IT, only when people see it as a genuine tool, rather than a toy. Which makes it a bit of a chicken/egg situation of couse ...

Mike.