[P8riot]

If I remember correctly Jim Rob's Free Republic servers are linux based. I use Mandrake Linux at home (thats what I'm using now), and there isn't ANYTHING I can do in Windex that I can't do in Linux (except maybe fall prey to all of those evil Windex centric viruses and worms that are floating around the net).

Linux is far more stable, and versatile than Windex, and more secure. Even if it wasn't free I'd still use it. Sure RedHat Linux is starting to charge for their Enterprise product, but there are other distributions out there that are better but have just not been marketed as much.

Check out www.distrowatch.com.

Windex sux. And I'm an MCSE.

[P8riot]

My bad. They have been charging for a while. You can no longer download the latest RH for free. If you want fre RH use Fedora or White Box.

[First_Salute]

Using Mac's; very stable in the UNIX stable. Networks more easily, right ouf of the box than Windows and Linux.

Like Linux; we use one as a WINS server. Also, all our PC's have second hard disk drives with Linux on them, so that, in the event the Windows hard disk drive is in trouble, we start w Linux and easily rescue the data. Very, very easy Windows rescuse scheme.

We find no cost effective reason to wonder about Windows v. Linux, because the Mac runs quickly, right out of the box; indeed, it is the fastest setup. We pay no license fees.

We have two Windows machines for proprietary software that is not yet available on Linux/Mac/UNIX.

Don't otherwise need Windows at all.

[Doohickey]

What's being an MCSE prove (nothing). Linux and Windows both have enterprise applications. Each does something the other doesn't, or does something better.

How stable as OS is, in large part, testament more to your skill as a sysadmin rather than the relative quality of the OS. I've got over 800 servers in my environment - Windows, Linux, HPUX, AIX, OS/390 - and as a percentage of installed base, each has an equal share of problem children, patches that need to be installed, etc.