In reply of the whole message above (the whole, that's just the intro).
contoursvt, I like to read what you say since you are well documented and work with both systems.
So I do, and therefore I have to agree with some of your observation - but I utterly disagree with some other, particularly with one.
I mainly work with WXP and W2k on the PC side, some of them work as network servers and web servers, some others work as simple workstations.
I work with 2 Apple computers, one iBook G4 and one PowerBook G4, both running OS X Panther. I've been using a G3 for 2 years now using OS X Jaguar (10.2). In this side, I use them for extensive graphic and video editing. They do not work as servers, but on daily basis I have to run up to 10 programs at the same time squeezing the CPU.
I also have a XP Home laptop for my personal affairs, as with a PowerBook G4.
I bought the PowerBook G4 three months ago and I only felt in the need of reseting due to a kernel error once (when hot-plugging and hot-unpluggin some USB devices when the computer was asleep and awakening the computer at the same time).
The PC's with W2k are reseted daily (no, not all of them, of course, but there's always one issue with one of them), due to numerous failures, most of them difficult to understand. They are well protected and maintained. We have 5 IBM technitians working in-house for us.
My personal XP computer I had to reinstall the OS already 5 times. It has no more than 8 months of life.
I reset it everyweek, no matter what I do, one day or another it fails. Believe me, I'm very concerned with clean computers, so I just can apply that unestability to the OS itself.
My iBook G4 has never been reseted, and will probably never be. That is for the past 2 months.
So you tell me that W2k/XP compares in stability matters to OS X, and I have to disagree.
However, OS 9 sucks (even though some people whose economies are probably unable to afford updates do not think so). It is an extremely grown OS that has inherited many faulty diseases. Certainly, OS X is a huge step.