Strange question? Why would you think that enterprise operations work best on Windows??

Basically, Linux requires a more knowledgeable operator; however you have a huge set of flexible options on Linux that you don’t have on Windows – a few are available on Windows for an additional cost.

If you have an organization full of Windows persons changing is a BIIIIG step. Linux is not Windows with a different user-interface. It takes a long time for someone to learn and be confortable with Linux to the degree needed to manage a large database system. Think about how to monitor tuning parameters, finding and tuning settings for devices like Raid etc. – those areas are very different. As well as the plentitude of disk management options you have (Linux allows you to adjust sizes of partitions without rebooting or deleting data first).

Personally, I’ve never found Windows stable enough to be used for enterprise level databases. Even small updates requires reboots and I cannot manage the Oracle processes as everything are Threads (drives me crazy!). We’ve had too many “just reboot” answers in the early stages of using Oracle9i on Windows – so 5 years ago we switched 100% to Linux. And while it’s not childsplay, it works for us. Our boxes are more secure, and remote access is pretty easy (and free).

Oracle publishes performance numbers … they change quite frequently. However, Oracle’s primery platform has always been, and is still unix. Porting new functionality is faster on Linux than it is on Windows. But if you’re unable to manage the database, what good is performance? If you’re unable to manage your linux box, you may very likely end up with a very bad performing database.