[jeremytliles]

I think hosting cost is the biggest issue, especially if you reach a point where you need to balance load across many servers. There is also the cost ofthe development tools, although I think MS has some programs that allow you to get Visual Studio .NET for free or for minimal cost. Other than that, I think there is just a huge bias against the MS stack in the "hacker" (yes, ironic quotes) community. Having worked with asp.net, django/python and rails, I honestly don't see a huge difference between the three in terms of development productivity, but there is definitely a difference in hosting and software licensing costs. Because of that, I've lately been choosing not to lock myself in to the MS stack for any projects that have the potential to require massive scaling.

[jamess]

Not to mention that the average hacker is usually far better equipped to manage a Unix flavoured server than a Windows server. With small companies who can't afford to have a full time sysadmin on staff, what you know is a powerful motivator. Windows server administration simply isn't the type of thing you pick up while using Windows, while the basics of managing Unixen is something you pick up while using Unix boxes.

[ScottWhigham]

I'm sorry but I don't see any difference in learning *nix admin vs Windows admin. If anything I think it's the opposite: Windows admin is much, much easier to learn. Where MS excelled early on was in usability and less-training-required - that was kind of the whole point.

[maien]

This is how i feel as well. Talking about hosting cost, I believe with current VM technologies and the pace it evolves, it will become a less problem in the future?