[chilepepper]

Linux runs in a large number of languages, Turkish, Siamese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Finnish, two flavors of Portugese, Ukrainian, even ESPERANTO

Even the spelling checker runs in a fairly large number, perhaps not 50 languages but close enough...

The reason the OS is so important is that everything else hinges on it.

If Microsoft has a neat application, then they should port it to Linux to see what that does to the their OS market share :) hint -- it will drop since normal folks (as M$ fans are always quick to point out) don't really care what runs under the hood. If they can get a good application to run on a free OS, great. Of course they care that is costs $100 dollars to get the latest version...or that installing the latest version might immediately make obsolete all the software titles they've been painstakingly accumulating for the past 5 years...

[TheEngineer]

If Microsoft has a neat application, then they should port it to Linux to see what that does to the their OS market share :)

Linux and other open source software should try charging Microsoft's rate, per seat license, and see what happens to their market share. ;-)

[Bush2000]

The reason the OS is so important is that everything else my self-esteem hinges on it.

There. Fixed it for you.