hehe, that's what you get for being in Helsinki studying CS
Either way though, I agree - telling you to just "change your OS" is pretty rediculous - even moreso when it's not your computer. It's one thing to suggest open source tools for the OS a person is using, but what you're describing is pretty silly.
EDIT: Linux-Windows war. Heh. I love how Linus doesn't see things like that at all - that's why he's my hero
A lot more sensible than a lot of Linux zealots out there.