how many of these systems will be safe if they had linux running? just saying because the linux is a smaller target and it would be a long time till it reaches the "year of linux desktop"
The same amount as would be if they were using MacOS or Windows 11. This isn't an OS issue, this is a "I didn't manage and configure my ACLs and RBAC correctly to minimize lateral movement in my environment" problem. Linux isn't anymore secure than Windows in that regard, as can be seen with ransomware such as Elbie. I can also say with extremely high confidence that in a number of orgs that are ransomware victim are running Linux seployments for their servers (usually Centos 6.x-7.x or RHEL6-7)