[citation][nom]pug_s[/nom]Microsoft is not really about innovation, it is about beating (or trying to) the competition. Over the last say 10 years, they created products in response of them feeling losing market share.The record is mixed, but they had several successes and failures. They spent 2 billion dollars making Internet explorer by giving it away to beat out Netscape. Creating Zune to try to beat out ipods with utter failure. Did okay with the xbox then xbox 360. They created the bing portal to try to beat out google. Let's be honest here, when Microsoft made Windows, they have always have the one size fits all mentality. Most of the components used on some $300 netbook is the same as some $10,000 server. They only recently decided to dabble in a module OS in windows 2010 when they made windows 2010 core. But still don't have the flexability or portability as linux.[/citation]
First of all, Windows and Linux are different products. Linux is simply a kernel that can be overlaid with whatever user interface and other high level software the developer wishes. As such, you can't compare Windows (kernel + higher layers) to Linux (kernel). Comparing Windows to a specific Linux distro is far fairer of course.
Second, Linux distros aim at a different market. A market of servers, enthousiasts and other people that require customizability. Windows users generally don't require the ability to customize everything.
Agreed with MS being a 'me too' company though. They launched few true innovations and even fewer ever became a success. Most of their products are 'me too', which isn't a bad thing per se.