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I see Bush2000 is avoiding this thread. He was so triumphant when an upgrade to version 2.0 of Apple's iTunes erased data on machines with their hard-drives partitioned and certain file names. Why no comment when your darling company's OS upgrade erases files?

Because I happen to agree with you on this point: Data loss bugs suck! Regardless of whether they belong to Apple or Microsoft. I'm not happy with this one. But let's cut through the chicanery: All software OS's contain bugs. And it is inherently obvious that OS's with greater numbers of users will exercise a greater number of lines of code; thus, revealing a wider variety of bugs. If you either don't know or deny this simple fact, I would advise you to read Watts Humphrey's "A Discipline for Software Engineering" (Addison-Wesley), for starters. My complaint is that few Mac and Linux users seem to be aware of simple engineering dynamics.

And it is inherently obvious that OS's with greater numbers of users will exercise a greater number of lines of code; ...[snip]... My complaint is that few Mac and Linux users seem to be aware of simple engineering dynamics.

c,mon b2k. you should have included windows in there, or left out the linux. the world is filled with clueless windows users and programmers.

[seperated out, cause addison wesley rules] read Watts Humphrey's "A Discipline for Software Engineering" (Addison-Wesley)

twelve bucks off for this ($47.50) at bookpool

And it is inherently obvious that OS's with greater numbers of users will exercise a greater number of lines of code; thus, revealing a wider variety of bugs. If you either don't know or deny this simple fact, I would advise you to read Watts Humphrey's "A Discipline for Software Engineering" (Addison-Wesley), for starters.

I'll take your word on Hymphrey. But is that the only reason that Windows OS requires so much code?
It's my understanding that another, not insignificant reason is because Windows is a Mac-like GUI laminated over DOS. It takes a lot more code to get a GUI that way than Mac does using it's propietary chip architecture.
(We can skip over the whole Xerox thing here. I'll stipulate that Apple mimicked Xerox, popularized the GUI, and that Windows mimicked Mac when they saw it was a commercial success.)