Ok, I'll counter...
Firstly, I never stated anything with regard to "sidestepping the BIOS". I think you may find that was another poster...
Each OS has it's merits and faults by virtue that you wouldn't try and play Crysis on a iSeries now would you? Nor would you use Linux for video editing. Would you attempt to run a secure web server using Windows?
Are these merits or a faults. Now, we can get all philosophical about this if you like? However, the plain fact of the matter is that one OS is better suited to the above examples than another. iSeries is not for playing games. Linux is terrible when it comes to video editing. A secure Windows web server? Mmmmm, good luck administering that one!
Linux is a broad brush mate. There are some many different flavours/distros that you need to pick a task for which Linux is suited, then find the best distro to perform that task. Which pretty much means that you have to treat each distro as a separate OS. Again, you wouldn't use full blown Red Hat for a proxy/firewall box, would you? You would use a hardened secure distro such as SmoothWall. Hope that clears up that confusion for you...
Now, the experience question. I have been playing with PC's since I was a nipper. Our first computer was an IBM PC XT - with a Turbo card that clocked it to 7MHz from 4.77MHz. An extra 128Kb of RAM to take it to the magical 640Kb almost bankrupted my dad. He worked for a software house, hence the PC over a Speccy or Beeb B. Back then, all there really was in terms of PC games were text based adventurers such Zork or Hitchhiker's Guide, along with a few Atari ports and other keyboard breakers (as dad called them). Being a little concerned that his sons would indeed break the (probably expensive) keyboard, we weren't really allowed to do much gaming. Long story short, I borrowed "Learning IBM Basic by David Lien" from one of the programmers (there weren't developers back then) and read it cover to cover. Taught myself how to program and ended up doing Software Engineering at Uni. I have worked as a Field Service Engineer for a Third Party Maintenance Company, System Admin on a 200 user Windows network, System Admin on AS/400, Database Admin on AS/400, Developer and Systems Integrator on AS/400, System Admin on AiX boxes, System Admin on Sun boxes, System Admin on LAMP stacks of various sorts, Web Developer, Project Manager and now am a Systems Architect for a Super Major Oil Operator - that's one of the Big 5. I've been around the block mate, is what I'm trying to say. All of the above has been in a professional capacity, I have an avid interest in computing in general, so have a few little projects of my own on at the moment.
Anyway, background over. What all of this experience has taught me is that using the right tool for the job is paramount. All this buttering up and fanfare behind Linux is getting almost as bad as the Fanboi's from the land of milk and no reception. People need to have an informed opinion: not just an opinion. They're like arseholes, everybody's got one...
Oh, and if you are going to have a pop at someone, at least make sure you can spell and your grammar is correct...
That is all.