Besides that, while I'm not sure it's still a valid concern:

When I switched from Windows to Linux in the mid 90's it was a transition from a box with an illegal copy of MASM and a not-really-working copy of a C++ compiler to a box with a plethora of PL's, databases, code-examples and whatnot with an enormous educational value for me. On the winbox I learned Assembler, on the linbox I learned to program, that made the big difference for me.

Is it still that way for others or is the current situation on windows better? (not considering OSX as you can install pretty much anything there nowadays)