Oracle is not better than Microsoft SQL Server just because I use Oracle, neither is Unix/Linux better that Windows, just becasue Bill Gates is making too much money and I am not.

Yep, it is an opinion piece. Most blogs are. It represents my experience, which is considerable. Thanks for reading.

And I get linux for free-of-charge.
I’m quite sure that I’m going to completely remove windows if I don’t need to run some apps in windows =)

Regarding your interview questions..
(Why Microsoft is better (not windows))-
1. Marketing,
2. Hardware (unfortunately not software),
3. Dirty tricks (allowing windows to be pirated to claim a larger stake).
4. Games (Ok, DirectX is to blame here – although OpenGL has a larger scope for portability & works on more than 2 platforms).
5. Familiarity.

(why linux is better)
1. Lower TCO,
2. Performance (lack of necessary virus scanner, efficient Filesystems that don’t need defrag to operate effectively),
3. Security,
4. Viruses – have to be manually installed by a sysadmin to infect the computer.
5. Portability (Linux apps can usually be easily ported to other OSes, Windows apps – not so easy)
6. Compatability – Have you tried running an old app on windows, only to find that an API/ABI has changed so much that the app no longer works? Have you tried doing the same on linux to find that it works fine?
7. TCD (total cost of development) – Linux applications usually only cost the electricity needed to power the computer as there’s lots of GPLed APIs out there, windows – lots of proprietary APIs that cost extra & are a nightmare to learn.
8. Code complexity – easy look at the source for a linux app, do the same for a windows app – the linux app usually has a lot less code to do the same task.

Your reasons (pulled apart)
1. Wine.
2. Ok, no real argument here – eDirectory
3. This would be true if the networking code worked properly on windows – look at google, one of the biggest internet companies, do they run windows 2003 on their servers, i think not.
4. Evolution vs. Outlook – I’d go for evolution any day.
5. Only because microsoft pay device manufacturers money to solely develop drivers for windows.

and as far as configuration tools go… YaST anyone?

As you may be able to tell, I’m biased towards Linux – and so would many others if the majority of games companies released their games for linux, windows would probably die overnight if that happened.

But if you think upon cost of development of the two operating systems i.e linux and windows, microsoft is spending millions of dollars on development of windows, on the other hand linux is developed by mostly by community based efforts, so its a good effort of community to reach at a level where people are trying to compare these two and a lot of discussion is going on that which one is better, I think its great achievment of this community based OS.

So far linux is really struggling to fight with its dependency hell and complex OS structure. further if we compare technically windows xp with any mainstream linux disro, XP is far more easier and ready to use operating system than any linux distro. No doubt you could use it only if you have lot of money in your pocket.

OF EVERYTHING… Why Linux and Windows? That’s like comparing oranges and apples. They’re different and function differently. One’s proprietary the other is open source. You can’t compare something that’s ‘free’ to something a multiBILLION dollar corporation created.

Mind you that Linux accomplished a lot during the recent decades where dedicated programmers around the world spent time for no charge creating such a sophisticated alternative to Windows.

p.s. Don’t flame this… I use both Windows and Linux and I can say that both of them are good on some features and bad in others.

Frank