Disappointed with Microsoft Windows

For a long time I've been one of those fanboys making excuses for windows. It's been over a year since the official release of Windows Vista and a despite that fact I recently felt so disenfranchised with this last release of windows (Vista) I can't continue making excuses for it since the service pack and/or patches haven't fixed the buggyness of Vista and I have now have switched to Linux. It was quite an eye opener, and made me realize just how bad Microsoft really is between their questionable monopolistic business tactics and poor quality product. If they were not a monopoly they'd out of the job with this considering what they wasted making it. If you compare the minimum requirements of the latest Linux vs the latest Windows the differences are gross. The latest Linux is backward compatible to the Pentium 2 generation, how is it possible that Microsoft spends billions on R&D for the new Windows and can't achieve that kind of efficiency and compatibility? I don't like the only possible conclusion I can see. They must be deliberately bloating the hardware requirements for the hardware manufacturers to secure hardware sales. It's the only thing that makes sense or are they really that incompetent? I can't say I'm too surprised, I've listened to a few of Steve Balmers interviews on Vista's poor performance. It really points out the whole attitude at Microsoft of sticking their fingers in their ears and humming. They spend all that R&D on bloating and overproducing the product instead of thinking of the basics and streamlining the kernel for both security and efficiency. I guess they've got their priorities where they want them, protecting the big corporate interests while screwing their consumers and the only thing out of their customers is "thank you sir may I have another." Well not this former customer, not anymore.

Maybe they'll come out of their funk. But I have a suspicion it's going to take the Return of Gates full time or something drastic to make that happen.