[nintax]

What about command line skills? How many people that choose Windows are proficient on the command line vs those who use *nix?

[ap3]

Exactly. I'm no command line whiz but access to linux/unix command line programs makes me much more productive.

grep / sed / awk / tail / ps / cat - then you add being able to pipe output between them

Then you have command line editors like vim for quick edits.

night & day vs the windows command prompt

[netpenthe]

just because i use windows on my desktop doesn't mean i don't know how to use vim/xargs/find/awk/sed/bash install and configure linux/solaris etc.

just means i prefer windows on the desktop?

if friends ask me if they should change to Mac from Windows, nowadays my thinking is: "if you want to learn a new operating system that is different to Windows, get the Mac. If you just want to get stuff done and you already know Windows, get Windows"

(Note i'd say the same thing in reverse if they wanted to change to Windows from Mac, i.e. stick with the Mac if you want to get things done)

bottom line: you are not your desktop operating system choice (well you might be a Mac, but fscked if i'm a PC - both PC's and Mac's are tools, lol)