It may be a bit premature to say that, though 2014 looks to be the year that I started liking Microsoft again.

We shall see. There is lots going on, both from Microsoft and from the rest of the OS community. It's definitely going to be interesting.

I doubt. It should be a year of Linux desktop, haha. Wayland with drivers from Nvidia, KDE 5 and Mozilla Shumway are supposed to be coming. And also Daala video codec and Steam Machines / SteamOS. Quite a number of breakthrough developments for 2015.