Well even so, I never have more than a few windows open, and I'm perfectly happy with Alt+Tab
I know I can't talk like I know my shit about Linux since I've used it for no more than twenty minutes in my life, but the stuff like SMTP or wget and the fact that it's open-source and whatnot doesn't directly appeal to me. That's only because I'm not awesome with computers, nor do I plan to be. In fact, I don't even know what SMTP is or what it does for me XD (by the way I don't really need to know, heh)
I bet Linux has some pretty sweet stuff, and I have seen a few cool things, but I think I would still feel limited. I'm the kind of person who's always switching to the next and better software, even if it's just for a few slight conveniences. I mean, I can't remember how many times I've switched around IM clients. And of course this is all just me, but I don't like being limited with my software. Even if the program gets the job done, I always think, how could it be better? I don't even use Windows Explorer because it's just not extensive enough. Instead I use xplorer^2 which is amazingly more useful. And that's not the only file exploring program I've tried out, either.
Also, what the software is made with doesn't really matter to me unless it has some very obvious downsides. And by obvious downsides, I mean ones that are apparent to someone who doesn't touch programming in the least. You're right though, most freeware applications for Windows are pieces of shit, and I wouldn't doubt that the ratio of good to bad programs is far better on Linux, but that's still extremely subjective. I know EXACTLY what you're talking about when you say you almost immediately toss out a new program after trying it out for a couple minutes, hah. But that's the fun of it, for me. I like to know which programs do what and how well, which have potential to be good, which ones I can recommend to people for certain situations, etc.
What it comes down to is that I'm almost never satisfied with what I've got, and need room for changing and adapting to new things constantly. This spreads into my real life too, which is most unfortunate, but that's a whole different irritating story.
Who knows, the same thing might apply to a time later when I get tired of Windows and switch to Linux for a few months, but would probably ultimately go back.
That actually makes me want to give Ubuntu another try... I've always been curious as to what I'm missing out on, I will admit; I just could never see myself as a devout Linux user :/