Really, the only reason to be thankful for using Windows is access to the superior blogging client, Windows Live Writer.  I’ve not yet found anything on Linux, OSX or even Haiku that works as well for firing off a quick blog post.

And Great news! Windows Live Writer is Drupal 6 Friendly. Thanks to the folks at TributeMedia and the WLWBlogAPI, you can—almost seamlessly—post to your Drupal 6 Blogs in WLW.

Now, this may not be cool enough for you Drupal Ninjas who prefer to compose in notepad++, but think of how nicely LiveWriter could be used to get non-bloggers in your organization posting to your drupal blog in a friendly way that makes sense to them.

Sometimes, I think, some of us read-write-web folks lose track of the fact that for many “regular” users, the browser is not a client. Windows Live Writer _is_ as client. It fits very well into most people’s sense of how they use their computers. And, it works great. LiveWriter has a Flickr Plug-in, too. Very nice.

1. In Windows Vista, I cannot print to my Ubuntu shared printer. No matter how hard I tried. Compare this with the fact that when I have a OSX in the house, it actually prints _better_ to the Ubuntu shared printer than Ubuntu does.

2. Using Windows Vista to move files between Ubuntu drives is slow and crash-prone. I'm not a computer-smart kind of guy, right? I know just enough to be dangerous. Why, using Windows to copy files, do files copy at about 1/4 the speed of the same files being transferred via SFTP?

3. Windows Skydrive, which could be Windows strongest selling point if they didn't screw it up so badly*, doesn't let you upload things in directories. What the good is it then? 

4. Ubuntu is not in the default Microsoft spellchecker. Boo!

*Think on this: How do Ubuntista's counter this argument? Q: Why do you use Windows? A: Well, because with Windows comes 5GB of Skydrive which is mine to do with what I want and I can keep my important documents synched up there in case of a system failure."

I’m not saying I would prefer a Microsoft product to an open source one, don’t get me wrong. But I am saying this: The last few weeks running Vista on my new laptop have showed me exactly how far behind Linux Desktops lag from "modern" OS experiences. It’s never been more clear to me the trade off you make when you make the choice to go Free and Open Source. It seem that in most cases. you’re picking the the lesser product.

The "Windows Tax" is a fallacy. That Vista is a miserable OS is a matter of perspective. From my perspective, "It Just Works" has really been the case with Vista and the exception in Ubuntu.

Case in Point: There is _no_ comparison between "Drivel" and "Windows Live Writer." I have been playing with Windows Live over the last couple of days, and I have to tell you, its not as bad as you think. In fact, if it was open source, I would be in love with it.

Windows Live Writer strikes me on first blush to be a superior blogging client. Look. I’m not one of those guys who hand codes each and every entry using raw XML. I wish I was, but I’m lazy. I’m a WYSIWYG kind of guy. But Live Writer is the first Blogging client that inserts Technorati Tags in a way that I like.

It integrates nicely with WordPress and has a kick ass "Preview" mode that you can use to proof your posts before you publish them. It’s got an SDK, for god’s sake.

(This is a repost, reconstructed from the Google Cashe)