Linux has a quite logical and simple rights management system.

You know when you have a rights problem. And you know how to solve it.

Most important of all: A "root" is really someone with the power to solve a problem. With M$, they keep some things from the administrator just because they know some people don't know their way around a computer.

The main thing is still mentality.

In Microsoft's world, they own the computer and lend it to you with strong restrictions in place. Microsoft creates strange agreements with the computer manufacturers where they more or less forces them to ship the machines with Windows. Just one of the facets in Microsofts view that they are the actual computer owners, and that we are only allowed to finger on the machines under the strictest of supervision.

In the Linux world, root is the king that decides if Linux will be let into the machine or not. If root says "jump", the OS will jump. If root wants to uninstall something, it gets uninstalled. And stays uninstalled. Physical ownership rules.

The interesting thing is that M$ regularly pays for companies to publish how much it costs to own Linux and how much more productive you are with Microsoft Windows. They assume payed consultants for fixing the Linux systems. They ignore the work and private time the Windows users spends googling to solve the M$ mess. Statistics can always prove anything - especially when you have the money to buy the collection of the statistics.

Microsoft constantly wants to "simplify" things. Everytime they "simplify" something, a couple of million users have to spend a couple of hours googling to find the "work-around" to actually do what you need done.

So why is Microsoft so big? Because too few companies have spent time writing portable applications using frameworks that allows the software to be recompiled for other targets. With all software available for Windows, OS X, BSD and Linux, it would be way easier for the user to chose OS.