I was thinking about the recent story about the DB looking for windows 3.1 administrator.
A classic issue I’ve soon working in heavy industry is that hardware last longer than windows version. So 10 years ago, you bought a component for the product you design or a full machine for your factory which only comes with a windows XP driver.
10 year latter, Windows XP is obsolete, upgrading to a more recent windows might be an option but would cost a shit load of money.
I have therefore the impression that Linux would offer more control to the professional user in term of product lifecycle and patch deployment. However, there is always that stupid HW which doesn’t have a Linux driver.
the simple answer is Microsoft
they have so much backwards compatibility built into their operating system it’s becoming a problem
Linux systems are also more varied, having one target is easy so you know it works,
anither reason is Windows is the largest desktop operating system, so if some random has to use it they’ve probably seen it before