Extremely informative and well written as usual Geoff. Thanks.
My only two comments would be depending on how you look at it:
I would say it is between XP Pro and Win 7. For me, it would make little sense to use Vista (even though it is available) when Win 7 SHOULD be released in late 2009 if Microsoft can stay on their 1,000 day cycle. Win 7, from everything I have read and researched and played with on the Beta, will be superior to Vista. It is almost like a service pack on steroids and, given that, will make Vista obsolete almost overnight. I don't mean people will feel they can't use Vista by that -- I just mean it won't be a huge change such as Vista was from XP that made users stay with XP. So, my advice: Either XP Pro or wait for Win 7 -- which of course if you need to start now would be hard to do.
I agree about VMWare. I get free Microsoft Virtualization software, and I still pay for VMWare products.
This is exactly why Microsoft has the inferior product but the much greater marketshare. Mac has THE OS but there is so much software which isn't compatible with Mac.
