Ah, that makes sense. Linux is also the choice for high performance computing. When you said work I thought you meant office or studio i.e. you'd be using some program that sets the standard for that particular task like Office or Photoshop in WINE or using a compatible substitute like Open Office or GIMP. That said, I still haven't heard of anybody doing either.
My desktop at home runs Mandriva Linux exclusively. I've run it for years like this and I have never had sufficient reason to want to run another OS. I don't run scientific simulations, I just do most regular type of stuff most home users do. Email. Internet. Multimedia. Stock Trading. Edit Documents. Right now the only thing I really miss on Windows is Netflix streaming (and that's actually because even though there is a Silverlight plugin for Linux, it doesn't support the proprietary DRM stuff that Netflix requires). Otherwise I love it. I make tweaks to my work laptop to make it feel a bit like Linux (once you go sloppy focus, you just don't go back), but it's just not the same. The slick desktop effects - desktop cube, expo feature, watching windows slide in and over each other as I focus, etc. Pretty much every function I need is available in a free, fully functional app. And the sheer convenience and power of the Linux command line. Aside: I hate it when everything is GUI-fied. It actually makes stuff harder and slower to do. I get stuff done in seconds that takes other people minutes to do, both at work and at home. In fact, I pretty much can't stand the Windows Start Menu and Explorer anymore, so I installed Cygwin which pretty much gives you a Unix command line environment in Windows, and a nifty little launcher that allows me to launch a program by simply typing its name. I mean, come on. This stuff should be intuitive. Alt-F2, type "powerp", Enter is a LOT faster and easier to do than Start, Programs, Locate "Microsoft Office" in endless list of dozens of folders, then click PowerPoint. Why isn't it standard on Windows?
Vista and 7's Start menus can do that, now: Super button, type, Enter. Compiz blows Windows' desktop effects, definitely - the type of effect when windows close, minimize etc., to the speed at which they pop-up, opacity effects when you drag them, so on and so forth. Not that they're impossible in Windows but it's easier to do in Linux because it's open-source.
