That may be true today, but historically Windows has not be anywhere near as stable as Linux for most people that get it running.
For the 1st year I had Windows 7, it wouldn't stay running more than 7-10 days at a time. Linux routinely stays up until I reboot it (due to a new kernel) - often 60+ days. In the old days around 2001, I had a Linux system up over 400 days without a reboot. Back then, Windows2000 wouldn't stay up more than a month at a time.
Stability is good news for everyone regardless of OS even if the end users don't make use of the added stability.
Just for fun, here's a quick 'uptime' list (I patch weekly):
- up 75 days, 17:57,
- up 28 days, 16 min,
- up 5 days, 17:22,
- up 6 days, 13 min,
- up 6 days, 1:01,
- up 2:37,
- up 5 days, 20:28,
- up 6 days, 9 min,
- up 9 days, 23:09,
- up 94 days, 16:30,
These are different Ubuntu desktop/server machines with many running inside either KVM or Xen or VirtualBox virtual machine environments. Some are 8.04, 10.04 and a few are 12.04. I don't do non-LTS releases.
A few windows7 PCs here have been
- up 10 days, 18:50 min. (laptop)
- up 16 days, 01:42 min. (7 media center running inside a VM)
I don't expect either to crash before I reboot to make a monthly image backup. Stability is good.
If you are seeing stability issues, perhaps there is something wrong with the hardware? I think that MS-Windows will put up with HW failures that Linux will fail over. Linux GUI environments also reduce system stability. X/Windows definitely does IME. A server that I don't run X/Windows on will stay up until I reboot it (over90+ days), but if I login on the head and use X/windows without any regard, it will crash in 7-14 days. The same box, same kernel, same base programs - just running GUI programs on X/Windows makes it crash. BTW the machine with 94 days uptime - that is the server of which I speak.
Just an opinion.
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