surely you have been here long enough to see posts about articles regarding nix vs. windows security issues. it's already been proven that nix has better security due to the fact that it is updated a lot more than windows variants. i know what your saying though about experienced people and their OS's etc...but its not that hard to learn basic linux to run a small distro for a firewall on a network etc and know how to update a few things. they even make distros just for that, and linux is way better documented when it comes to usage....we can both agree (i hope). its just my opinion but if what his company wants then so it shall be.