Which is my point, just working is what Mac OS X and Ubuntu do better than Windows. The Microsoft option appears when you need to use say Photoshop, play games, fill up your iPod, etc.
Windows XP at home, Ubuntu at work.What is your primary os?
My mother is the super star, she has two Windows XP laptops, one Ubuntu laptop, and a iMac running Mac OS 9/X. The Mac hardly works with any hardware and is a tad slow for OS X. The XP laptops have issues occasionally, poor software, or dubious hardware: low power USB ports, but they can be made to work with a digital camera, webcam, scanner, bluetooth pieces, etc. The Ubuntu laptop is very light and easy to travel, works very reliably: even gone through distribution upgrades with no fuss. Can you imagine your mother upgrading XP to Vista, or Mac OS Tiger to Leopard without asking?