I’ve been telling people for a long time now that Windows Vista is doing more to drive people to Linux and MacOS X than any other platform or any other single reason in the entire decade so far. And heres some numbers that suggest this could be more than just a geek with an ear for this kind of thing.

Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh® computers, representing 34 percent growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac® shipments by 400,000. The Company sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

Apple Corp Press Release 22 Oct 2007

That there says that the last 2 quarters of Apple’s Fiscal 2007 have seen the company selling record numbers of computers than in the past. Far more than could be attributed solely to the iPhone or the iPod.

Big deal? Exceptionally!

Everyone knows I’m an Open Source advocate. I’ve toned down my rhetoric in recent months simply because I do not feel like I need to be as vocal about it any more. Why shout loudly when the product itself is now starting to get noticed on its own? The moment Dell decided to offer Ubuntu on their consumer machines was the catalyst. Now HP and others are either offering it already, or considering it seriously.

But what truly stands out are the number of stories you hear floating around the web, and also the evidence I see at my own job, of the companies and peoples that get Vista on a new computer, put up with it for a few days and then beg Microsoft to let them go back to Windows XP. And that number is growing. Rapidly.

So I’ll say it again. Microsoft Windows Vista is, in my opinion, the primary cause for the massive surge in the popularity of alternative Desktop platforms such as Ubuntu Linux, MacOS X and many others that are getting noticed daily.

But what is it about Vista that is causing people so much grief? Well, how about this example for starters.

After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I’ve finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA — something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.

Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into “reduced functionality” mode, where you can’t do anything but use the web browser for half an hour.

You’ll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code.

WARNING: device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate – apcmag.com

I’m sorry, but thats just frightening. As a gamer, I’m always updating drivers and the like to try and get the best performance out of my mediocre gear. To think that something as simple as that will toast my install and force me to beg Microsoft to let me use my computer again. :-/ Thats not just frightening, its simply evil.

I don’t hate Windows. I consider it a necessary part of the IT world and acknowledge that it most definitely has its place in our industry. However, at home I so rarely use it now days that quite frankly, if it wasn’t for the occasional game I try to play, I’d probably delete that partition to free up space in Linux.

More than that, when I get back from my holiday, I intend to finally subscribe to Transgaming’s Cedega 6 to see if its now up to the task of running the games I want to play. I’ve heard and read a lot of good things about it. Cedega running my games would have me almost entirely off Windows. Now if only Google would release the long promised Linux native version of Google Talk so I didn’t have to boot to Windows to use the voice features.

We’ll see eventually I guess.