Something a bit related, that I thought was a good read:
http://www.viperlair.com/articles/editorials/vista/versus/
A comparison of Windows XP, Vista, and Ubuntu Linux.
In particular, I get a kick out of the boot times:
Vista boots for him in 8 seconds, XP in 33 seconds, Linux in 15 seconds.
He must have one hell of a hot system. (And I bet these are just to the login prompt, too. Still impressive as hell, even so.)
My own numbers (all measured on the same hardware):
Vista boots to a login promt in 40 seconds, another 50 seconds from there to a usable desktop, total boot time of 1 minute 30 seconds.
XP boots to a login prompt in 1 minute, another 3 minutes 4 seconds to a useable desktop, total boot time 4 minutes 4 seconds.
Linux is nice. Fedora Core 6 boots to a login prompt in 55 seconds, but from there to a useable desktop is 15 seconds, total boot time 1 minute 10 seconds.
–James
Tea came out of my nose… 
I believe that Ubuntu uses InitNG to help it’s boot times (I think), If you want you could set up Red Hat to do the same replacing SysVinit (I think). I guess the point is that it is difficult to compare Linux to anything due to how many versions there are.
Microsoft is a crappy Ford car, that isn’t brilliant, but it’s easy to get parts for.
Mac is a Volvo estate. Very safe, but cornering takes forever, parts are hard to get and the lights are always on. Whether you want them on or not.
Linux is a Messerschmidt two seater that you build yourself from a kit. If you’ve got one, you KNOW what it does.
Perhaps the best analogy I’ve seen.
I’ve never timed how long it takes to fire up my silly computer, but I know mine at home with XP takes a heck of a lot longer than my husband’s at the store, which is Windows 98.
And mine takes longer to shut down too.
They have Vista on a computer at work in the break room, but I haven’t seen anything fantastic that makes me want to go out and buy that operating system.
We’ve got one here at work as well (I’m praying to FSM they don’t wanna pull a complete Vista upgrade on us…eek), and honestly, there isn’t one things that I’ve found about it that OSX doesn’t do better or faster.
I’m currently (as of this past week or so ago) runnin OSX Cheetah (the jittery version, aptly named, though Chihuahua would have suited better, lol 
) on a G3 dinosaur and it still pounds what I’ve seen of Vista.
I’m absolutely, positively not participating in Microhard’s quest to rule the world and every industry within it anymore; the next unit I buy will be a mac.
(interesting …there’s a pirate program out there that allows you to run OSX on a PC and double boot it with XP if you so choose…I can’t remember where I found that little bit of news, but perhaps other mac users know)
One difference is that cars usually (not the Messerschmidt though) have the same user interface. Turn the wheel to the left and you know what will happen. It isn’t until you get under the hood that you need to get out the manual, but even then dipsticks and fluids are pretty intuitive and standard (except for Dexcool and other “improvements”).
Around where I work I switch from OSX, XP, Sun stations, etc. and even simple things like copy and past ans save involve different commands. The worst is the occasional PC with a mac keyboard.