There are important reasons why malware targets flash/acrobat/java...

1, this software is ubiquitous... they used to target internet explorer before, but now its down to >50% marketshare its a less attractive target.
2, it can be easily reached via the browser - ie less social engineering required.
3, it is hardly ever updated, neither windows nor osx has a decent centralised update system that takes care of third party software like this. you might get a crude updater program, but hats useless in a corporate environment where you aren't given admin rights.

Windows is only the largest target on the desktop...
On mobiles, embedded devices, servers, supercomputers, linux is a serious player.

Sur greater linux marketshare would increase desktop oriented malware, but it will never be quite as serious as windows because of various design choices that make a unix based system harder to infect.

Hiring cheap staff is an absolute false economy, someone cheap might be able to get a windows network limping along, but it will be horrendously insecure and unstable, not to mention that you will need considerably more of these cheap staff just to handle the day to day tasks.
These cheap staff could also get a linux network limping along, it would still be more secure and stable than windows but still not great, the only difference is that these cheap staff probably dont have the confidence to claim linux experience.

Wether running windows or linux, you need competent staff. Competent staff will provide a more secure, more stable network, and you will need less of them vs how many incompetent staff you would need. You will generally need less competent linux admins than windows admins for the same number of systems too.

Competent linux admins will generally have a decent level of windows experience, but not necessarily the other way round.

When it comes to software, it's very unlikely that your business needs any particular software, what they need is software that serves a particular purpose and there are generally multiple choices, increasingly such software presents a browser based interface these days too so the client is irrelevant.

Also as ridiculous as it sounds, the inflexibility of software has often forced many businesses to adapt their way of doing things to how the software works... This is certainly not a good thing.

For hardware, server hardware almost always works just fine with linux, it would be stupid for a server vendor to provide non linux compatible hardware given that linux is a significant player in the server market. When it comes to other things, like laptops and lowend desktops sure you have to look for hardware which is known to be compatible with linux, but anyone semi competent will be doing the same thing when buying windows systems too... You want to know what hardware you have, and you want to be sure you have quality components... Some of the more questionable lowend brands of hardware may not be supported by linux, but it may also have buggy windows drivers, hardware bugs or simply be inferior (eg wifi card with much lesser range).

The smaller the cost of a system, the bigger proportion is made up by windows... And let's not forget the hidden costs:
If you have a windows volume license, its just an "upgrade" license on top of the OEM version you pay for with the hardware...
You will probably need an AV product...
Chances are you will have msoffice, which often costs more than the hardware.
If you have multiple windows machines, you will probably have an active directory domain too, which then required the more expensive "server" version of windows.
If you have windows servers, you will also need CALs etc, so you will spend a lot of time (or even hire someone full time) to manage license compliance.
The built in patch management of windows is crap, you will need third party tools (usually costly) to verify windows updates and provide patching for third party software.

Well seeing as it was your HBA drivers at fault, you have far more options with Linux... It seems you were beholden to MS for the OS, and then to HP for the drivers... At least with Linux, either HP or the Linux vendor would be able to debug and/or fix the HBA driver, you could even hire developers to fix it yourself if its important enough to you.

Also that's a pretty critical bug, drivers for a server grade raid controller have no business failing under load...

It's also insane you took that long to diagnose the problem, it should have been pretty obvious it was the io system and not the database at fault.

Large companies do use a lot of linux, but generally only on server and security critical (eg firewall) devices... Most companies operate on the assumption that the outside (which is often a linux based firewall) is hard, while the inside (often active directory and windows workstations) is soft.

There is a _LOT_ of ignorance and general incompetence in the IT field, it's not uncommon to find people who either have no idea Linux exists, or are rabidly against it (because its free|because they dont understand it and fear losing their job to someone who does). Amusingly, most of these anti-linux shops who are most vocal about not using linux, actually have several embedded linux devices without realising it.

Then of course you have lock in, a company of any size is likely to have lots of applications which are used by various people within the organisation, some of which won't be cross platform and therefore artificially increase the cost of migrating away from windows.

There is also fear, people are scared of the unknown... You will often find people who have no experience of linux, and who will fight hard against it because they fear losing their job to someone who does have linux knowledge. Of course, the real problem is that they are unwilling to learn new skills, a fatal flaw in an industry such as this where things change so rapidly.

And don't forget misinformation, people will often say that linux "has no commercial support" for instance, which is obviously complete bullshit.

Personally i think that long term, linux will gradually take over unless microsoft succeed in doing something drastic to make it illegal... As things mature, costs will push down towards cost price as has already happened with hardware, i predict the same will happen with mainstream software eventually.

People gradually migrate towards more open systems, due to cheaper pricing and more competition. That's why we're stuck with the ibm compatible these days and not any of the considerably superior but proprietary alternative architectures.

Well said, i only run an ad blocker because of all the intrusive ads (especially those with video and/or sound)...
When it was simple static banner and text ads i didn't have a problem.

Just because you watch ads, doesn't mean you're actually going to buy the products featured in them.
If i am subjected to ads which are too pushy, irritating or frequent i will go out of my way to avoid the product in question and most likely the company making it... I have actively sought out alternatives many times when the supplier i knew of was one that has irritated me through commercials.

Similarly, i now browse with an adblocker... Text ads i had no problem with, neither most graphical banners...
Animated ads started to annoy me, but ads with sound were the final straw... The amount of times my computer would start making a noise and i had to hunt through 50+ browser tabs to find the source.

Ads which delay page loading also irritate me severely, and banner ads where the size is not pre-declared in the html so the page reformats itself as the images load.

Good ads are subtle, you arent paying much attention but they go in subconsciously... Then when your going to buy that kind of product, you lean towards the one you saw advertised or you think of it first.

On the other hand i detest ads which are in your face, if they annoy me sufficiently then i will certainly remember but in a bad way and i will explicitly avoid their products in future as well as telling other people to do the same.

Product placements are an interesting one, if done in a subtle way it actually improves the program... Someone drinking a coke is more realistic than someone drinking a generic cola brand that has been fabricated specifically for the show.
But when done poorly as you mention, with the ridiculous zooming in and holding the product up to the camera in a way that you would never do if you were just using it normally really messes with the show.

It's worth noting that in open source software like myth, you get commercial detection and skipping etc...
In commercially produced devices, especially the big brands, you just get fast forward (which is quite awkward to use for skipping ads), no skipping, no commercial detection.
Same with video players, one of the most useful features in mplayer is skip, very few other video players seem to have this.