Just for the record,,,,,,
I do video capturing (not with media center), editing and DVD creation
I do audio capturing, editing, and creation
I work with photos and other art
All are extremely overall system intensive processes that run for many hours.
I put my system through hell. If Windows was going to break,, trust me,, it would have.
I use Office 2007
Play many, many games
I also check out, test a lot of third party software... I do a lot with my system and have not had any stability problems.
Including tearing into the Registry, install/uninstall lots of software. I don't just use my system, I work with it.
Nor have I had any network disconnects.
So,, I am not saying that people aren't having problems,,, but straight up blaming windows is not the answer.
If it were in fact windows itself,,, it would not matter what hardware it is run on, and I would be having issues also, as would anyone trying to use windows.
That is also not to say that windows is flawless,, it's not,,, but you have to take into consideration,, all aspects,,, third party software, drivers, hardware, the user. There are many areas of fault and saying that Windows in general is not stable, is a false statement.