OSS for companies: Linux versus Windows

II-2.2.3-Linux versus Windows

"Historically, Windows has tended to dominate in the desktop and personal computer markets (about 90% of the desktop market share), and Linux has achieved between 50─80% market share of the web-server, render farm and supercomputer markets .They differ in philosophy, cost, ease of use, versatility, and stability, with each seeking to improve in their perceived weak areas. " extract from Wikipedia

Here are some areas we should focus our analysis on:

-philosophy
-cost
-ease of use
-stability
-installation
-security.

For this part I could have made a copy of the very detailed analysis provided by Wikipedia on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_and_Linux but I think everything could be easier if I made a simpliest one:

	Windows	Linux
Installation	Within one hour you can install Windows XP on your PC	After two days of trying I am still fighting for the installation of Ubuntu/Linux which has the reputation to be the easiest version to install.I am scared to death that I will have to throw away my PC in case of a bad installation.
Philosophy	Proprietary software.This software belongs to you and only you.You have the right to expect from this software the best it should provide you. It is forbidden to copy,modify and redistribute it.	Open Source software.This software is the result of volunteering as a result you have to understand that people who made it are not on your order and that one day you should have to contribute to the community or at least to consider them.
Cost	Family edition of Win XP:139€	Free
Ease of use	Because Windows is pre installed on almost all the computers sold in the world it is to my point of view the most easiest OS.	It has the reputation to be very technical even if they try to simplify it as much as they can.This is why most of the companies are reluctant to use it.
Stability	Windows is based on MS DOS which has the reputation of being less stable than Unix.It means that there is more chance that your system crash under Windows than on Linux.	Linux is based on Unix. Mac OS is also based on Unix
Security	A lot of viruses detected which caused some serious damages	Few viruses detected and none serious attack detected
Support	Based on companies.You have to expect that they can solve your problem.	Mainly based on a community.You hope that they can solve your problem or give you the key to solve it by yourself.