coincidentally i am on a compaq machine running windows 2000 Pro too. luckily i have a copy of phoenix, spoofing my ID as netscape 6.2 on linux, i also have PuTTY so i can ssh into grex (running SunOS 4.2), also i brought my basiclinux floppies so i can be free of windows completely at lunchtime.
and i agree with you about how boring it is. luckily i have an office on my own, so no future microsoft employees to get underfoot!