should be nice

Ever left on windows for more then 6 months?
The memory management in windows is terrible and is far from good, windows will become very unresponsive after a few days uptime, in my experience.
windows cannot stand in the light of linux if it's about stability sorry to disapoint you. Linux just runs.

Wow didn't you patched the machine for almost a year?
As far as I know windows needs a reboot if it's patched, or did MS fixed that issue?

Exactly. IF Windows were opened-sourced (yeah right) you would see new distributions that were slimmer and more secure, and separated user and system files better, and encouraged the use of a non-admin account. Hmm. A lot like *nix.

If Microsoft relased an open source Windows I just look down to the source and Laugh

Probably not, though I had to think about it for a minute. The main reason is because of all the patches, security fixes and the like Windows has been forced to add to keep it going. Let's face it, the Windows code has more patches than a hockey goalees(sp?) face!

I'm not sure I would have the patience to try and sift through all the patched in lines of code to accomplish a task or develop an application.

If Windows were to start all over from scratch with an open source release it would probably look more like Linux. I already work in Linux. So what would be the point in it?

Everything has it's place. As long as users use windows, I would use it because part of most of our job anywhere is end user support. It's better to learn to work within the parameters than to fight them. Convert those you can, but you're going to have to deal with it somewhere.

First of all, there is not just "Windows". There is the 9x kernal, old NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. I'm not even going to cover Vista because it's still incomplete. Unfortuneately, each revision doesn't just build from the previous one and each release is never entirely re-coded. Windows95 is completely different from XP, which is very different from 2003. With the kind of tweaking that should be done in default installations, I don't see memory problems with Win2000 and above. None. But when you start piling applications and services into the system, things change a bit. I have an XP system that runs perfectly and never has the slightest of problems, but then again.. my neighbor's XP system is always in need of repairs and servicing because she's just a casual user, and casual users hardly know how to make the right decisions and sacrifices for optimal performace.

To say that Windows becomes very unresponsive in a few days uptime, even though you add "in my experience", says one of a few things to me. Your experience with Windows is outdated, your installations are not properly modified (which I agree should not have to be done in the first place just to make it stable, but consider the OS's intended userbase), or your installations are not properly maintained and/or are damaged with bad app installations or management.

Things may have been different 5+ years ago, but to say that Windows nowadays continues to crash, drain, hang, and cripple to the floor is really quite ridiculous, sorry to disappoint you. If your experience is primarily with another OS such as Linux I can accept that. I'll reiterate my above point, Windows should be secure, efficient, and stable out of the box and not require a power user or MCSE to make it decent. Windows can be just fine, but Linux is much better which is why I've switched.

Yes, my Win server has been running for almost a year since the last reboot and I've still managed to take care of some patches and updates. The server is very stripped down and has only what it needs to in order to do its job. I don't use the GUI and 90% of the tasks are carried out through the command prompt. When I need the GUI I always log on with a separate account, and if it needs patched I'll look at them first and make sure they're really needed. Not all updates are neccessary. And it sounds like this may be news, but most patches no longer need a reboot. Some others go into effect when logging off and reloading the services. It's nothing fancy... just Win2003 Enterprise Server running HTTP, FTP, PHP, MySQL, and SSL.
Once I'm familiar enough with running a Linux server I won't have any use for Windows except for an occasional game, or maybe as a development/debugging environment (which VMWare for Linux will take care of actually).
And the source code is not going to change that.

Any version of Win prior to XP/2003 is trash, and 2003 is only a little bit better.. still, it does not crash, become unresponsive, or eat up resources for no reason unless you have one of those annoying users who install everything off of every single CD that comes with all their hardware so their system is clogged with useless services by their printer, scanner, camera, and webcam manufacturers alongside other pointless apps that sit in memory just so they can play music or load up a media player.. those users also tend to plague their machines with all the Windows-only spyware and virii variants. That's when the system becomes unresponsive and crashes, and it sounds like those are the only Win installations you've had experience with.