It isn't equivalent, but it is approximate; folks were mentioning ctrl-alt-dlt. Three keys instead of nine keys represents a 66% increase in efficiency.

I would've said it was approximate enough in whe Windows 3.1 days when it could perform a soft reboot. But since Windows 2000, it has had completely different functionality (sometimes allowing you to log in, sometimes giving you a process manager oslt), not even remotely approximate to the magic sysrq sequence presented here. Do tell me if this has changed since Windows Vista.

Linux, by the way, can also respond to Ctrl-alt-del, and depending on the desktop it might perform functions similar to Windows.