I'm also a Unix admin, but I used to be a Windows admin.
Unix people can usually comfortable with either
That depends entirely on the person. Most of the Unix admins I know would jump through hoops to not work on Windows. Also, I've found that the more zealous their enthusiasm for Unix, the less comfortable they were with Windows.
To increase shareholder value for Microsoft
To me this means that while you don't have much of a choice in their direction, they're not going to do something totally off the wall that causes a large backlash (ala Gnome 3 or Unity) because they still want you to buy the upgrade. Yes there's the ribbon, it's not a perfect example. But it also means that every piece of hardware that comes out is going to have Windows drivers.
I'm also going to have to throw in a new category:
Support
There's paid support for Unix, but it's nowhere near the prevalent as Windows support (does this translate into cheaper?). If I had to give a computer to someone who may need technical assistance I would give them Windows. There's some individuals that can maybe have a user friendly version of Linux and be fine with it for months, but as soon as they want to hook up their new shiny, it's going to result in phone calls.
Comments
I agree with everything stated here.
I'm also a Unix admin, but I used to be a Windows admin.
Unix people can usually comfortable with either
That depends entirely on the person. Most of the Unix admins I know would jump through hoops to not work on Windows. Also, I've found that the more zealous their enthusiasm for Unix, the less comfortable they were with Windows.
To increase shareholder value for Microsoft
To me this means that while you don't have much of a choice in their direction, they're not going to do something totally off the wall that causes a large backlash (ala Gnome 3 or Unity) because they still want you to buy the upgrade. Yes there's the ribbon, it's not a perfect example. But it also means that every piece of hardware that comes out is going to have Windows drivers.
I'm also going to have to throw in a new category:
Support
There's paid support for Unix, but it's nowhere near the prevalent as Windows support (does this translate into cheaper?). If I had to give a computer to someone who may need technical assistance I would give them Windows. There's some individuals that can maybe have a user friendly version of Linux and be fine with it for months, but as soon as they want to hook up their new shiny, it's going to result in phone calls.