Wow, there are a lot of misinformed people, linux/unix IS a superior operating system, but it is NOT that because the people using it are smarter. Microsoft is a great company, a big company, but compared to a userbase twice there size all working together on a piece of software, they are just inferior. MS Windows is completely different than Unix based systems (Although with Win2k3 they are getting closer). Compared to unix based systems, windows systems aren't even really multiuser. Unix based machines have the potential to be setup in far more secure fashions and are able to allocate resources (and mange large resources, such as raid arrays) far better than anything MS produces.
As for Macs, their operating system (OS X) is based upon FreeBSD, which is based upon UNIX! Which means that apple's not only have a far superior chip archetecture, but also utilitize a far more advanced operating system - yet while os10 machines are generally more secure than windows machines, os10 has the potential to be locked down extremely dight (due to the fact that it is based upon unix). This also allows for apple servers to be extremely powerful (which they are - and in addition, they are extremely easy to use.)
As for Macs, their operating system (OS X) is based upon FreeBSD, which is based upon UNIX! Which means that apple's not only have a far superior chip archetecture, but also utilitize a far more advanced operating system - yet while os10 machines are generally more secure than windows machines, os10 has the potential to be locked down extremely dight (due to the fact that it is based upon unix). This also allows for apple servers to be extremely powerful (which they are - and in addition, they are extremely easy to use.)