The e-week article Windows Server Woos Linux Customers has some very interest facts.  Not all of them are pro-Microsoft, but it does show that some of the marketing fluff out there is not quite right yet either.

The migrations come after a quarter in which Windows Server revenue grew faster than Linux revenue—the first time that has happened since research company IDC started tracking Linux server spending in 1998.

Recent Linux-to-Windows converts include consumer products manufacturer Unilever, online retailer Overstock.com, French sports yacht Areva Challenge (the French entry for the 32nd America's Cup yacht race), and California candy maker Jelly Belly.

Windows is particularly gaining ground against Unix and Linux on the supercomputing front, a space that Microsoft did not play in until 2006, when it released its Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 product.

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Candy maker Jelly Belly, of Fairfield, Calif., had a challenge of a different kind: Its Linux-based VPN software, which it declined to name, was unreliable and difficult to administer, resulting in its IT staff spending a lot of time supporting it.

Matters started coming to a head when the sole person trained to administer the Linux-based VPN software left the company. "At least three times a week, someone attempting to work remotely would not be able to get into the network. Problems were so common that we would plan on some issue arising—and set aside time to handle it—every time one of our executives traveled," said Nick Saechow, the IT manager at Jelly Belly.

In the end, the company switched to a Network Engines VPN-and-firewall appliance running Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 because they were most compatible with the company's existing IT infrastructure and skill set.

ttfn

David