Uh...the only time I have EVER had windows delete files for disk space is when I had maxed out my hard-drive, and even then it alerted me like a thousand times before it HAD to get rid of something to operate.
I've never maxed out a drive on a linux machine (I try to avoid doing that much work on them in the first place) but I'm pretty sure if you reached the max of a drive on Linux, the OS wouldn't just cram in the last bit and then turn the machine off, smiling at you saying "I'm full, but didn't give a care to do anything about it."
If you're not maxed out, you need to look in other directions before you start blaming Windows for deleting files. My job requires me to keep several collections of thousands of files of all different types, and I have never lost any files for reasons unexplained. If I've lost something, it's either been because I accidentally deleted it, moved it, destroyed it, or there was a hardware fault. I've had paragraphs lost in MS-Word due to system errors, but only on rare occasions and mostly when I've got too much going on and doing something without waiting for my slow machine to catch up fully.
As for Nubius's post, upgrading Macromedia's products is not required, but Macromedia does NOT support older versions of its software for more than one version back. If you don't upgrade, you get left behind. The software changes too much to account for legacy users. Dreamweaver and Flash are not mom-and-pop design tools, and Macromedia likes (needs) to be at the front of the market.
As for upgrading 3rd party software in general, it is impossible to continue to support aging software. If software companies want to progress, they have to leave behind. Much of the new coding and systems today simply require new ways of handling them, and anything from the past will remain only a second concern.
If Windows wants to create a new ActiveX module to support some new feature or idea, and the consequence is they have to remove back-support for a 5-year old version of ActiveX, guess what they're going to do? Right. They're going to do exactly what any other successful software company is going to do. They're gonna say fk the dead weight, move the market forward.
My argument still stands. Show me an alternative to Windows that does not involve me losing functionality, compatability, and ease, and I'd consider switching. For now, it's all just a bunch of unsupported reasons backed by band-wagon Windows-bashing, amplified by (I'll admit) Microsoft's nazi-like licensing/sales. We've all had our "I-HATE-WINDOWS" moments during an install or driver troubleshoot, but that's hardly a reason to outright run away.
Show me the OS!!! SHOW ME THE OS!!!
