but most importantly they [ubuntu / open source operating systems] come without all the BS like constant updates,
I wish people did not say that, since it is absolutely not true. Ubuntu is always getting updates, any time of day and any day of the week. A few differences:-Ubuntu's update manager is way better to use. Two clicks gets it going, then you can ignore the rest.
-Updates are centralized; you don't have Apple Updater, Adobe Updater and Norton Updater all trying to sell you stuff as they waste valuable resources at startup. Just one tool that is designed properly. (Neat discovery: Toribash is free again and has an apt repository. Automagic game updates = win).
-You do not wait until a beauraucracy is ready; you wait until the fix is ready and no longer. Case in point, the Debian LibSSL fiasco. Problem was realized, fixed and patches were downstream in distros like Ubuntu within one day. I greeted the pile of updates with much glee and amazement. Coincidentally, this was the day after Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. It also should be noted that the exploit - as a mere example - came after both the discovery and the resolution of that problem. All things considered, that was a really well handled mess.
PS: I don't want your worthless "90% of software". It is my opinion that a good 70% of Windows software is built by incompetent morons who hardcode paths such as "C:\Documents and Settings\" and don't think twice about it. You can see the incredible stupidity of software developers boiling over in Windows Vista just by looking at stuff which does not work. I think in most of those cases Windows is not to blame; that software was all terrible and should never have been encouraged.
The rest, excluding heavy DirectX stuff, works in Wine.
Besides that, people who use Windows ignore that there is a lot of neat software on Linux which has no Windows port. It's changing with a lot of KDE apps now that the KDE4 platform is able to run on Windows, but even so, you guys are missing a lot of cool stuff. Some examples...
F-Spot, Banshee, Tomboy, Evolution, Glom... GTK software generally is nicer to use in an actual GTK environment where themes and configurable menu accelerators work.
As for "crashed app takes down the system" in Linux, I do not doubt it. Something different here is that Linux is a monolithic kernel as opposed to a microkernel. (Mr Torvalds apparently hates microkernels, and I am gradually coming to understand his point). Most of the magic happens in usespace, so when you see horrible instability it could very well not be the whole system, or Linux the kernel to blame, but a big userspace system like the X server.