XP is fine, Vista uses up too much memory and it's unstable, OSX is very nice but it would need more games for it and Linux is cool, runs very well on my old PC but I can't play my games. T-T

XP - only because I've used that the most in my life, so I got used to it, but if I took the time to get used to leopard (now especially with more compatible software) I'd probably fall in love with it.

Flash - The Flash player IS availible on Linux. As for Flash design, a combination of <video> tag in HTML5, <canvas> tag, SVG, Javascript, CSS and other web technologies, all of which are supported by modern, standards-compliant browsers (not IE). If you're looking for absolute parity, Java provides a lot more than Flash does as a web plugin.

Photoshop - GIMP provides 90% of the functionality for 90% of the users. The features which aren't in GIMP or a GIMP plugin are niche, and as such about 1% of the population has a justified reason to stick with Win/Mac. CS2 is great under Wine anyway.

Illustrator - Inkscape is at effective faeture parity with Illustrator, only it isn't bloated and slow. I believe Inkscape is better, even for graphic designers.

Dreamweaver - the best website designers don't use Dreamweaver. They do it by hand. It's a lot more flexible and produces cleaner code. Dreamweaver is an 'entry-level' or 'quick mockup' program, not a professional one.

InDesign - Scribus is equally good.

Flash - I'm talking about Flash the program, not the player. Javascript is great and all but there are many people who still use Flash for many things and people need access to it.

GIMP pales in comparison to Photoshop. I'm in that "1%". Once you start dabbling in channels in GIMP, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Inkscape, I've only messed a bit with it. It's not Illustrator and I'll leave it at that (though Illy has its own special problems that infuriate me continually). Illustrator is bloated and crash-happy but its vectoring software (finally Adobe, fuck that took long enough) and compatibility with other design software keeps it on the top of the pile.

As for the Dreamweaver coment, ROFLMAO. There are loads of massively talented designers who use it and for good reason: it's not for the display functions (which no one who's worth a damn uses), it's for the file management and the elimination of copying and pasting routine code (like URLs, IMG SRCs, etc.). The fact that you didn't list a handful of other programs that do the same (for less money) shows me you don't really know what you're talking about. I know many designers and very few of them write code in Notepad or something of the ilk anymore. It's too slow and too repetitive.

Scribus is just as good as InDesign? Not if you have more than a rudimentary understanding of print technology. InDesign is, hands down, the top-of-the-line program when it comes to professional print design. The way Scribus handles external images is a joke (amongst other problems). Its pre-flight is also *ahem* less than desirable, to put it nicely.

Linux is fine for tinkering, general purpose use, and servers. But don't try to tell me it's a desktop publishing / graphic arts replacement for OS X or XP. That's ridiculous.

I've used Windows mostly, but i have used Mac's in school and out of the 2 Vista owns the tits out of Mac