>Is there a better compiler collection than gcc?
Subjective. VS and XCode are both good for their respective platforms. I know they're IDEs, but that's what people tend to care about.
>Is there a better shell than bash?
Subjective. Some people prefer features of csh, ksh or zsh, or else they wouldnt get used.
>Is there a better editor than emacs ;-) ?
Of course. It's called vim.
>Is there a better wm than ratpoison or evilwm? (for my tastes that is)
Highly subjective, as you noted. I prefer something that does look decent and a little mouse movement won't kill a guy.
>Is there cooler special effects than beryl?
Subjective. I found beryl to be too distracting/too much hassle to get the way I wanted and so I got rid of it. Both Aqua and Aero are nice looking without requiring any configuration and without being obstructive.
>Is there a better web server than apache?
Subjective. IIS is much easier to deal with if you want to develop with .NET technologies. As to which is more secure, I'll leave the discussion to people who know more than I.
>Is there a better OS dev VMmachine than bochs?
Never heard of it till now. Most people probably aren't worried about OS development though.
>Is there a better browser than firefox?
Subjective. Firefox does have issues.
>Is there a better email client than mutt?
Subjective. I'd take Outlook or Thunderbird instead.
>Is there a better assembler than gas?
Subjective, but most people probably don't need to worry about an assembler. Hell, I used gcc when I needed one.

Linux is not for everyone. OS X is not for everyone. Windows is not for everyone. However, each of them is a great fit for certain people.

My desktop with a few apps open.

If your windows is any nicer looking please post it. I call BS until then.

ok you have points. Oh and with beryl Im talking about the "coolness" factor (I personally _hate_ beryl but it is the "coolest"). "Traditional" linux or unix is not for everyone but with ubuntu, linux just got a lot easier (of course I hate ubuntu). In fact, I think many users would consider ubuntu easier. For example lets say my grandma wants to use a computer: would I install Windows or Ubuntu? Ubuntu hands down, no spyware, and no viruses(or is it viri?).

> If your windows is any nicer looking please post it. I call BS until then.

Mines really ugly!

So long as you're productive and efficient it doesn't matter how it looks.

Of course you get marked down for using emacs and not vim

lol...

Isnt MC sooooo the best shell ever ????

are you talking about midnight commander?

yep it reminds me of the days of the MSDOS shell and novell (or was it norton?) file manager . For working on servers it kicks ass.

I think it was norton....