Something no one has pointed out yet explicitly (though narcberry alluded to it) is that each of these languages runs on both Windows and Linux (and other operating systems as well). Some languages may be better supported on some platforms, but the differences are generally small beyond the library differences you run into mostly with C/C++.
While the various.NET languages are certainly Windows-centric, and Perl/Python/Ruby/etc. were mostly born and bred on *NIX systems and favor them still, for the most part it doesn't matter. As many have pointed out, Mono exists for *NIX systems. C/C++ obviously work in both worlds, the only substantive difference is in the libraries you might use to get things done (C++ keeps coming up as a *NIX language, but between VC++ and other C++-related projects at MS, Microsoft takes C++ very seriously). But I've worked at Windows shops who had all of their scripting done in Perl and Python - running on Windows.
A better focus for your question might be to learn about the different classes of languages. If you've never seen much other than C# and ASP.NET, you're limited by the narrowness of your knowledge of abstractions more than by your inexperience with Linux. Learn about managed versus unmanaged languages (C/C++ versus C#). Learn about static versus dynamic type systems versus the in-betweens (for you, perhaps IronPython and F# compared to C#?). Learn about different ways of building concurrent systems (shared state vs. message passing, most things vs. Erlang or E).
The most substantial difference from a programmer's perspective between Windows and *NIX is really the difference in the native threading APIs (which you generally see only from C/C++). Most of the rest is just learning a variety of libraries, and you'll probably learn and forget more of those over the course of your career than you care to think about, regardless of what platform you're on.
I graduated from high school 2 years ago, and am currently a CS major. I took two years of programming courses (one year of random C++ and Java, plus AP CompSci), taught by a fairly competent math teacher. I actually first started with BASIC in 5th grade, and in 7th grade got my hands on a copy of Visual Studio. One of my suitemates did C++ independently in high school, and is now a neuroscience major. Several of my friends in high school who are now Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering majors did the same, and programmed independently.
The real issue is not whether someone is willing to teach it to high schoolers (programming courses were electives for my school, so we all wanted to be there), but whether they themselves know it well enough to teach it. Programming and computer science were not as prevalent when many of the current high school teachers attended school themselves, so many of them did not have an opportunity to learn it.
What it really comes down to is that the technically inclined will find their own way - most of my friends who programmed in high school did so on their own, before they even got a chance to take classes.
I agree that there is some degree of narcissism present in all these things.
Personally I just use it so I can access all of my bookmarks from whatever computer I happen to be on (CS lab workstation, home, dorm, laptop, etc.). It's a bit more convenient than keeping multiple bookmark files syncronized, or just emailing myself links.
Actually, that C code would eventually end when it ran out of memory for the new processes, so you couldn't do it indefinitely. Even a system with a decent amount of RAM can run out reasonably fast.
"...which Linux delivers the best balance of stability, high-level support options, security, rapid updates, and ease of administration... the one that does it all while also making upper management feel warm and fuzzy?"
Really, you're not going to find an *ideal* balance without giving some of these ideas higher priority than others.
If you're worried about your job security, it would seem great support would be one of the most important considerations. Red Hat and Suse are undoubtedly the best in that area. If ease of administration is your biggest concern, you need a solid package manager that *you*, the administrator, feel comfortable with. Debian, Gentoo, and Slackware are not the best for support. Plenty of help is available, but it's not exactly a 24 hour tech support hotline.
Properly administered, any Linux distribution can be as stable as any other when security updates are released quickly. Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat, Suse.... all are good for this. Generally any major distribution will get security updates out fast.
Stability? I recommend avoiding Gentoo, simply from personal experience. I've never gotten a Gentoo system I set up to stay together very long, but that may very well be my fault. That said, it does depend heavily on what you track. Debian's stable branch is rock solid, and the testing branch tends to be very stable as well (I use Debian, and track testing, and have never had a problem). But if you track unstable (which would naturally be foolish in a production environment), it will be just as unstable as a Gentoo system with a bizarre set of USE flags in make.conf. I personally trust Debian. Red Hat and Suse are well reputed. Slackware is also very stable.
For ease of administration, I have to suck it up and admit that Red Hat and Suse beat out Debian for easy administration. Debian and Slack are not bad by any means. Gentoo can be messy to administer at times...
Also, as a couple others have mentioned, think about what applications you need these machines to run - some commercial applications only run (or only run well) on certain distributions, and this is certainly a major consideration.
So ultimately there is no real balance (IMHO). But get the things that are *most* important to you and your company. Prioritize. Don't sacrifice unnecessarily, but there's no one answer.
ATI has made some nice graphics chipsets for the PowerPC platform as well. I love the Radeon Mobility in my Powerbook, but my installation of Debian Sarge on another partition would *love* to have some 3d acceleration and support for the nice S-video and DVI outputs. When will they get around to Linux drivers for non-x86 platforms is what I'd like to know.
okay, i did see one person try to correct the article, the exam was c++ up to and including the last exam preceding this year's, not "3 or 4 years ago" as someone said.
i took apcs A (AB was not offered at my school) and it was ridiculously easy. not just for me, but it was unchallenging even for the less skilled, less computer oriented people in my class. so the scoring cutoffs should be close.
as for it being java:
i personally hate java. hate it. i like c++ far better, but for the purposes of this exam, it doesn't matter. i saw a couple people post comments saying the test should be on concepts, not language. it IS on concepts, the course simply uses java to teach those concepts to students. it is not a language exam. it does not ask about bytecode and package structures, it focuses on sorts, recursion, etc. there is nothing wrong with the exam.
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Something no one has pointed out yet explicitly (though narcberry alluded to it) is that each of these languages runs on both Windows and Linux (and other operating systems as well). Some languages may be better supported on some platforms, but the differences are generally small beyond the library differences you run into mostly with C/C++. While the various .NET languages are certainly Windows-centric, and Perl/Python/Ruby/etc. were mostly born and bred on *NIX systems and favor them still, for the most part it doesn't matter. As many have pointed out, Mono exists for *NIX systems. C/C++ obviously work in both worlds, the only substantive difference is in the libraries you might use to get things done (C++ keeps coming up as a *NIX language, but between VC++ and other C++-related projects at MS, Microsoft takes C++ very seriously). But I've worked at Windows shops who had all of their scripting done in Perl and Python - running on Windows.
A better focus for your question might be to learn about the different classes of languages. If you've never seen much other than C# and ASP.NET, you're limited by the narrowness of your knowledge of abstractions more than by your inexperience with Linux. Learn about managed versus unmanaged languages (C/C++ versus C#). Learn about static versus dynamic type systems versus the in-betweens (for you, perhaps IronPython and F# compared to C#?). Learn about different ways of building concurrent systems (shared state vs. message passing, most things vs. Erlang or E).
The most substantial difference from a programmer's perspective between Windows and *NIX is really the difference in the native threading APIs (which you generally see only from C/C++). Most of the rest is just learning a variety of libraries, and you'll probably learn and forget more of those over the course of your career than you care to think about, regardless of what platform you're on.
If you actually read the article, it says that they've seen the hybrids in captivity, and that the hybrids are fertile.
I graduated from high school 2 years ago, and am currently a CS major. I took two years of programming courses (one year of random C++ and Java, plus AP CompSci), taught by a fairly competent math teacher. I actually first started with BASIC in 5th grade, and in 7th grade got my hands on a copy of Visual Studio. One of my suitemates did C++ independently in high school, and is now a neuroscience major. Several of my friends in high school who are now Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering majors did the same, and programmed independently.
The real issue is not whether someone is willing to teach it to high schoolers (programming courses were electives for my school, so we all wanted to be there), but whether they themselves know it well enough to teach it. Programming and computer science were not as prevalent when many of the current high school teachers attended school themselves, so many of them did not have an opportunity to learn it.
What it really comes down to is that the technically inclined will find their own way - most of my friends who programmed in high school did so on their own, before they even got a chance to take classes.
I agree that there is some degree of narcissism present in all these things.
Personally I just use it so I can access all of my bookmarks from whatever computer I happen to be on (CS lab workstation, home, dorm, laptop, etc.). It's a bit more convenient than keeping multiple bookmark files syncronized, or just emailing myself links.
Actually, that C code would eventually end when it ran out of memory for the new processes, so you couldn't do it indefinitely. Even a system with a decent amount of RAM can run out reasonably fast.
"...which Linux delivers the best balance of stability, high-level support options, security, rapid updates, and ease of administration... the one that does it all while also making upper management feel warm and fuzzy?" Really, you're not going to find an *ideal* balance without giving some of these ideas higher priority than others. If you're worried about your job security, it would seem great support would be one of the most important considerations. Red Hat and Suse are undoubtedly the best in that area. If ease of administration is your biggest concern, you need a solid package manager that *you*, the administrator, feel comfortable with. Debian, Gentoo, and Slackware are not the best for support. Plenty of help is available, but it's not exactly a 24 hour tech support hotline. Properly administered, any Linux distribution can be as stable as any other when security updates are released quickly. Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat, Suse.... all are good for this. Generally any major distribution will get security updates out fast. Stability? I recommend avoiding Gentoo, simply from personal experience. I've never gotten a Gentoo system I set up to stay together very long, but that may very well be my fault. That said, it does depend heavily on what you track. Debian's stable branch is rock solid, and the testing branch tends to be very stable as well (I use Debian, and track testing, and have never had a problem). But if you track unstable (which would naturally be foolish in a production environment), it will be just as unstable as a Gentoo system with a bizarre set of USE flags in make.conf. I personally trust Debian. Red Hat and Suse are well reputed. Slackware is also very stable. For ease of administration, I have to suck it up and admit that Red Hat and Suse beat out Debian for easy administration. Debian and Slack are not bad by any means. Gentoo can be messy to administer at times... Also, as a couple others have mentioned, think about what applications you need these machines to run - some commercial applications only run (or only run well) on certain distributions, and this is certainly a major consideration. So ultimately there is no real balance (IMHO). But get the things that are *most* important to you and your company. Prioritize. Don't sacrifice unnecessarily, but there's no one answer.
ATI has made some nice graphics chipsets for the PowerPC platform as well. I love the Radeon Mobility in my Powerbook, but my installation of Debian Sarge on another partition would *love* to have some 3d acceleration and support for the nice S-video and DVI outputs. When will they get around to Linux drivers for non-x86 platforms is what I'd like to know.
Yeah, I also get asked for a login and password.
okay, i did see one person try to correct the article, the exam was c++ up to and including the last exam preceding this year's, not "3 or 4 years ago" as someone said. i took apcs A (AB was not offered at my school) and it was ridiculously easy. not just for me, but it was unchallenging even for the less skilled, less computer oriented people in my class. so the scoring cutoffs should be close. as for it being java: i personally hate java. hate it. i like c++ far better, but for the purposes of this exam, it doesn't matter. i saw a couple people post comments saying the test should be on concepts, not language. it IS on concepts, the course simply uses java to teach those concepts to students. it is not a language exam. it does not ask about bytecode and package structures, it focuses on sorts, recursion, etc. there is nothing wrong with the exam.