Maybe I'm missing something, but who develops on Windows for applications that aren't using the Windows APIs anyway? I mean, the whole point of Windows is it's APIs. If you aren't going to use them, then sure, go and move to a unix system - indeed you should have done so years ago.
On the other hand, if your product is designed for Windows, then you can't really switch, can you? (that's a real question by the way, not rhetorical).
The whole point of Windows is that it's an operating system. Depending on your market/skills you either develop for it or not. I prefer to develop for it because when it comes to C++ programming, it's the best out there.
This story made porting look easy, but rest assured it is hard, and he won't be so thrilled when the problems start cropping up.
I develop java applications on Windows. Within my company there are at least 3 other software engineers that are doing web development targeted towards deployments that are not on windows servers that still use windows as development boxes. We also do this by choice.
If you are familiar with Windows XP then it is a fairly stable, simple, and reliable OS.
On the other hand, if your product is designed for Windows, then you can't really switch, can you? (that's a real question by the way, not rhetorical).