It should not take this to make you stop using windows for good. The first time it crashes and you loose work should make you think there must be a better way. "But some programs I use only run under windows and don't have linux versions," you say. Using these two software packages you can run linux dual boot so your winblows is unaffected or just run it off a memory card or something. Also, best of all automatix will install wine and you can configure wine to be any version of windows you want, even differnt versions for differnt programs and still run ALL your windows software under linux.

Also it is all soooo easy to use. If you can use windows you can use Ubuntu because it is wayy simpler. Yes there will be a small learning curve but isn't it worth it. I mean we're talking a week tops to become really familiar with it and you will never have to worry about articles like the OP's again.
Open source means just that. No corporations, no secrecy; the source code is an open book for anyone to examine or compile as they see fit.

Just try it you owe it to yourself. Make a live CD and see how it runs on your system. No changes will be made to your hardrive until you choose to install it. Personaly I just love the piece of mind from having a machine that stays running 24/7 for years without ever crashing/freezing and no blue screen of death. Here are the links. Have fun!

[link to www.ubuntu.com]

[link to www.getautomatix.com]

P.S. It is all free, so tell old Billy boy where he can stick it.