user base, funding, backing, developers, fixers? (Score 1)

one things that always amazes me, when people start comparing microsoft products to linux distributions, is this:

microsoft is a corportation. BILLIONS (trillions?) of dollars backing its products. year(s) of development before major releases, and a cost base that is 100x that of linux dists.

linux is developed by normal people, who do extra-ordinary things. when a new fix comes out, it is made available. it might not work, but thats the risk you take if you want to use it. microsoft has enough money and power to hold onto its fixes until they decide that they feel it is ok to release. take the recent Win2k fix.

linux, releases fixes, for people to test, and then report back.

M$ is a finished product that is just getting fixed. I feel that linux is a development that is still underway. and thats what i really like. you know that if you don't have a driver, you just have to ask around. find a few people that need it too, and find someone that knows enough to write it. M$ won't do that. they decide when something is obsolete. such as a $400 scanner i bought later last year, before W2k was released. They decided that they didn't want to roll a driver into the release. the manufature decided to go EOL (end of life) just before. They decided also to cease support options on win2k, since microsoft wouldn't help them with the driver models.

linux? it works dandy. and it always will (probably) because we don't loose drivers in linux. we just get updates and new ones.

This dude, is comparing apples and oranges. hit an M$ server with 500,000 hits in an hour and see how it cry's.