Hi Najamss

I am not sure from where you get your information.
When you say that you switched from linux system administration job profile to Windows administration due to lack of scope then I guess you have not explored linux well. Linux admins are well paid and most sort after professionals since.

Apache an open source (not owned by any one company) runs 47% of the worlds websites against 21% for microsoft product. (courtesy http://news.netcraft.com/)

If I am not mistaken this very site runs on a LAMP(Apache, Linux MySQL, PHP) platform which is again all open source and free products.

Linux blends well with windows network. You will be able to see and access windows networks and workgroups without much effort. Samaba ( the program that helps in networking with windows) comes installed and well configured with Ubuntu.

Linux networking is much better and advanced than windows as it is predominantly a network oriented operating system from the beginning.

The driver management is much simpler in linux. around 80% of the hardwares are supported out of the box. Most of the drivers are created by linux enthusiast and volunteers working over time.

I find that software management is much better and easier in linux than in windows. all the softwares are available on the package manager. just have to click on the software that you want to install and then click on a button and you are done. It will download the required files and install it for you. now downloading double clicking, forward next clicking etc.

Out of the box multimedia looks better in windows because many are proprietary codecs and there are legal issues to use them. But you can always download the required codecs install it from the repositery.

When you make a statement that all latest softwares run on windows it means you are not aware of the softwares that are available for linux.

As far as distribution is concerned it is a personal choice. You can choose the one you want depending on which one you feel comfortable.

I am not sure why you want to stick to the paid distro concept. Most of the linux web servers running on the net is not paid distros. But they employ paid admins with good linux Know how. this has the advantage that you are not vendor locked.