It's easy to get caught up in the notion that Microsoft owns the entire desktop market, but there are many companies out there who would see things differently. There's a great number of capable desktop operating systems available, and Mac OS X shows that these are not restricted to the PC platform. In fact, we would expect that Mac OS X will tempt many users over to the Mac platform since it is proof that an OS and hardware combination can be robust, technically advanced and stylish all at the same time.

As we said from the start, it's easy to get over-passionate about an OS, and while the currently available flavours of Windows may not be exactly perfect, they don't crash as much as they used to and they offer the best breadth of hardware compatibility for the simple reason that hardware vendors normally see Microsoft customers as their target market, and so write drivers for this platform before any other.

Given the availability of some of the operating systems reviewed here, it's worth trying some out. It's perfectly legal to copy a Linux distribution from anyone since the software is under General Public Licence. Solaris 8 is available as a download if you have a fast enough connection, and BeOS will take about three to four hours on a 56Kbps modem connection.

As we've said, if users want to stick with Microsoft for hardware support, for familiar ease of use and so on, then Windows 2000 has to be the way forward until the next version, Windows XP is with us. Otherwise, we'd recommend three options, as follows.

First, the inquisitive approach; install BeOS. We believe BeOS has the ability to win hearts, with a great interface and an elegant, multimedia-oriented approach.

Second, the determined approach; install a Linux distribution such as Linux Mandrake. Some users may never look back, but it requires some time and effort.

Third, the radical approach; ditch the PC and buy a Mac in the summer, with Mac OS X installed. Now there's a hardware upgrade that got out of hand...