Why is networking on Windows so hard and networking with Macs so easy?

I am not really sure; personally I find networking Windows machines to simply be more annoying than Macs, but I have had some training in networking.  Anyway, read this networking with XP story on NSLog();.  Although the problem may be hardware-related (i.e., the router), it is interesting to hear all of the problems someone who has been away from Windows for a year had using the "friendly" XP operating system.