I just want to address what Aaron said above about the Windows Start Menu. You can basically have the same thing by dragging your applications folder to your dock and then just right click on it to get a list of applications. I actually find this easier to use than the Start Menu in Windows.
I agree about the finder. We need something a little more usable. One program I can't live without on my Windows machine is Total Commander. It's a great file manager application. I've been hoping they would port it over to Windows but they have said that there is no plan for it. I've also seen a couple of open source apps like Midnight Commander but they just don't compare to Total Commander.
Good article Chris.
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