Still way ahead of the curve...

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1983365,00.asp

Eweek has this interesting article - you probably saw it on http://slashdot.org

I like this little snippet:
"Based on our forays into user forums for many top open-source enterprise applications, there are many IT managers attempting to run open-source products on Windows servers--attracted, no doubt, to the benefits and efficiencies of using open source without having to become Linux administrators. The results of our WAMP stack tests indicate that these folks might be on to something."

How three years ago - in my opinion... I've been through that phase, we'll probably see an article in a year or two talking about "Slim single mission open source servers with low overhead and startup costs replacing more complex and expensive full OS servers running in a managed server environment."

I loved working with WAMP and homebrewed conglomorations of FLOSS (Free License and Open Source Software) applications running on Windows OS platform servers for the reasons listed above. It gives the flexibility and low cost of FLOSS in application deployment, allowing me to gain strength in management and administration of Apache and MySQL without also having to conquer the learning curve of installing and maintaining the base OS's typically associated with them. It's a natural stepping stone.

FLOSS solutions on windows machines isn't just limited to server applications either. There are a lot of great FLOSS solutions for the desktop environment like PaintDotNet and OpenOffice. Why steal, or worse pay for Photoshop or MS Office when FLOSS provides programs that are great replacments for the vast majority of users? System utilities like CD/DVD Burners, file management, desktop management, browsers, email clients, FLOSS has a lot of good solutions.

As far as server stuff goes, I forsee the enterprise environment moving to servers like m0n0wall and FreeNAS on small virtual servers managed on gigantic windows and nix clusters. With installation as easy as pie, resource usage as sharp as a knife and management as simple as a tall cool glass of milk we'll all be asking for seconds.