[slantyyz]

You got that right. In the end, the target platforms are the vendors prerogative.

Where you really run into problems is selling a weak Unix version into a Windows-hating shops. It ends up being more of a problem than if the vendor just told the customer "you're better off using Windows with our product".

[nailer]

Hate's a strong word, but yes, having a budget for such things in the past, a vendor coming in with an unpackaged app (or some horrible custom non RPM/deb packaging format), with no init scripts, no syslog support, and sales staff who don't understand the bog-standard RHEL or SLES platform to the point where you have to help them with their presentation, can and will guarantee no sale.