I do understand the various bottlenecks that kishore has pointed out. But we have to still look deeper into this issue...
Linux is no longer to be a free OS and Its slowly turning out to come out as an Enterprise Linux...Of course its free, and rather than seeing this term "free" from the "zero cost" perspective the stage is set to see it as "freedom" to tune to fit the needs of the user.
And as kishore said, when it comes to Domains such as EAI and all, Its not far away from possible that Linux can well be integrated with other legacy systems and I hope Kishore might not know that MQSeries Integrator has support for Linux...For that matter of Enterprise Applications integration the underlying OS is not a major concern as all of the integrations are based on a universal Standards with which every OS including Windows or Linux (no matter which OS it is) complies with can be integrated.
For instance today there was an Internal training for us on EAI for which we had a person from Satyam who is the chief functional consultant of Satyam's Malaysia divison was giving us a lecture and I put forth this doubt to him...
His views do match with what I thought in the same way as he said that the platform really doesnt matter for the integration of Linux or WIndows systems and he also added that in fact this is the major reason why Linux made Microsoft rattled. This fellow from Satyam by name Sai is the chief Consultant for Satyam and infact he was a Pro Microsoft person who worked with BizTalk Server and a lot more of that sort and he was also Sun Certified professional as well...
Why I am giving this much stress to these granular details about him is that may be I may have a feel say looking Linux and Microsoft from say from about 50,000 feet, whereas he as an experienced head may make more sense than what I can say...
Right from the beginning when Linus Torvalds released his Kernel, he just developed his own kernel just to have an operating system which lets us what we want to do instead of the OS letting us what it lets us to do...as in the case of Windows
Later on when you look into the evolution of Linux, It was specifically designed for professionals or I would say that in other terms that it was developed and handled by "Gurus"...who had a better systems knowledge when compared to the end user...
This might be the reason that might have prevented the popularity and user friendliness of Linux from being explored by the end user.
But now the scenarion which is emerging is completely different... IBM has already started OSDL (Open Source Development lab) which involves giants like SUN, Oracle, and lot more to join the bang still...
With this, Now the Linux I hope is trying to get transformed into a desktop alternative too and for instance Sun Microsystems is going to install some 200 million servers and computers in China with its Java enables Linux Based Workstations and servers It has also signed an MOU to distribute unrestricted number of copies of its office suite "Star Office" in china for corporates Governments and institutions...
Already the stage was set for what kishore has said about the integration of legacy systems and the day is not too far for Linux to occupy an inevitable role in the future computing... I need to close today and will get back with lot more details when i find time for ranjini and no doubt that we cannot doubt on micropsoft's Marketing power, But ranjini, do believe that Linux Enterprise is no longer a dream and that dream will come tru and your belief is no invalid still...

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Mahendran Jayavel