Here are the advantages as I see them:
Windows: Won't do RAID5 without expensive hardware
Windows Server: Will do RAID5, but Server is expensive.
Linux: Will do RAID5, free.
Windows Server: Won't nativly support expanding software RAID5 setups. Add on tools to allow this are very expensive.
Linux: Will allow for expanding RAID5 setups on the fly with a set of free downloadable tools.
Windows: Been there, done that.
Linux: Was a fun expiriment, and I learned alot in the process of getting things up and running.
Windows: Won't get me chicks.
Linux: Won't get me chicks.
I'm not trying to start a Linux vs. Windows debate. These are jus the advantages as I saw them.
I just finished 20 hours of monkey's audio "Verify" command on my entire music set. It came up clean across the board. (There were a few CRC errors detected, but as it turns out, they were there in my windows setup as well.)