I use Opera...and that darn thing keeps crashing and sweeping away all the preferences (and it's NOT a MS product).
I use Zone Alarm, and one time in around five I have to shutdown and restart it because the ADSL connection wouldn't want to came up after registering on the ISP (and it's NOT a MS product).

On the other hands: install the OS, install the latest SP, install the latest IE suite, and then set "read every mail as text" and "ask me if someone wants a receipt confirmation" in the OE preferences...lastly, switch off the WindowsUpdate function.
Done, you will NEVER have to worry about your Win2000 machine.
And using the firewall had done even more than a patch from MS (which I haven't even downloaded).

Well, I tryed Linux some years ago, I know how PCs work...
What a nightmare!!!
Is there something you can't get to work? Search the net for the docs...well...WHAT docs???
Ok, there are the newsgroups...do a search...find nothing...ask..."RTFM" was the more delicate answer (at least here in Italy)...but is it my fault if the newsservers kept only the last two months of messages (even less if they are English language newsgroups)???????
Finally I put my hands on the pockets and bought a couple of books, a hand palm high each...now they're obsolete, and if I reinstall Linux I have to restart over and over again with the above situations...
And if installing patches is time not spent in rendering, playing Quake and so on, you must state that even learning how that flag in the XXX config file works is time not spent in rendering, playing Quake and so on.

Now I let Linux in the security environments (where it belongs), and I'll continue to install a MS OS and do no more than ten tweakings, and don't worry for the time being (well, MSBlast caught me when I had to temporarily shut down ZA as stated above, when I restarted it it blocked the virus in no time, and I was able to remove infections without even read instructions...if there was something similar for Linux machines, I think i had to download the latest kernel, the latest upgrades, and recompile them only to learn I had to download and recompile the latest C libraries or the latest graphic libraries from an exotic server...............and so on).
Last note: I know well that sometimes even Linux has to be upgraded, crackers hit Windows machines as well as Linux systems (yes, Linux has its own flaws as well).