SEATTLE (Reuters) - Developing Windows-based applications is easier and cheaper than making Linux-based applications, according to a study paid for by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) and released on Monday. The world's largest software maker, which is facing increased competition from Linux -- the open-source software standard that can be copied and modified freely -- hired Giga Research, which found that licensing, associated software, maintenance, labor, and training was 25 percent to 28 percent cheaper on Windows for certain types of applications.The study compared applications built to run over the Internet on Microsoft's .NET platform to applications developed with J2EE, a development...