Feature	Windows (Xp)	Linux (Mandriva 2005)
Update Support	Yes - Windows update	Yes - Control Center
Multi User	Not really can use switch user feature if useing the welcome screen if you use the classic NT/2000 Stlye you forfit that	Yes 6 CLI and 1 GUI (though you can start new ones)
Built In Firewall	Yes but unstable also misleading info about sp2 firewall	Yes some disrtos of linux can be used AS a firewall
Support for "Rival" File-systems	No.. there are 3rd party tools but can be unstable and you can loose data	Yes FAT16/32 is supported NTFS is read only though
Supervisor or admin within non Admin login	Yes - The run as mode	Yes - Run as Root
Choose of Graphics user interface (GUI)	No	Yes Uses KDE, GNOME WVM and room for others
Any known Viruses	Yes Loads of them.. plus exploits and bugs that are not quickly patched	Yes but need to be root to do real dammage but "windows" viruses do little to no effect on linux boxes but still have to be aware
UNIX Support	No	Yes Linux is UNIX Based
Free to download / install on other systems	No - Uses EULA Licensing on a per computer bases uses product activtion to stop copies	Yes under the GNU/GPL its free to distribute and install with one "license" though free download versions have no support and you will need a fast internet connection to do it but its worth it then paying too much for an oprating system that crashes
Easy to Duel Boot	No - you can only config "boot.ini"	Yes - Uses ether Grub or LiLO
Support for programs written for "rival" o/s	No windows doesn't Support Linux Programs, though some GNU/Opensource progs have been ported to windows	Yes Linux has programs like WINE but not that stable.. other programs you can get like crossover.. there are opensource rivals to most things eg xmms (winamp) Gimp (adobe photoshop) and Openoffice.org (msoffice)
Easy Escape for non responding or crashed programs	No if screen freezes you have to pull the plug	Yes you can restart the X server without rebooting linux also you can swap "consoles"
Customize and monitor what can be loaded at at boot	MSCONIG.EXE can be used but few ppl know of it	Verious files can be altered to load services but tricky to find them