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1) great multiuser support. 1 linux box can easily handle several simultaneous users (i read an article earlier this week about a setup that included 10 monitors/keybords/mice connected a single box (not thin clients) where all could work simultaneously, unfortunately i can't find the article)

So can Windows. I've heard of keyboard/monitor/mouse sharing applications for PCs going as far back as DOS. They've never been particularly common or popular for things other than, say, cash registers and the like.

2) application selection. don't want a web browser or media player installed? you don't need to install 'em. how many mall kiosk workers, airline agents, or cab drivers need a web browser or a media player on their computer? probably close to none. since windows lite won't be available in the US, companies will be stuck offering these productivity vacuums to their employees as long as they are embedded in windows. there is nothing remotely like this in linux. don't want a web browser or media player? don't install one.

It is not hard to remove these applications from a Windows install if you really want to. In particular, if you can expend the effort to do a custom Linux install, you can expend to effort to do the same thing on Windows.

3) price - windows server enterprise is $4000, plus around $40 for each client. for that guys company with 20,000 employees, that would be well over $800,000 in windows licenses (there's got a be a cheaper site license, right??)

Yes. No company with 20,000 employees is paying anything close to the retail price. Heck, any company with more than a hundred-odd employees should be able to start negotiating for some level of discount.

cost of enterprise linux, plus unlimited clients: 0.

20,000 employee enterprises do no run on free versions of Linux downloaded off the net. The cost of "enterprise linux" is vastly higher than $0.

You also ignore the simple fact that software licensing is usually one of the least significant costs incurred on IT infrastructure. $40 per user ? That's probably less than an employee will cost a company in an hour. Average that cost out over the ~6000 hours for the minimum 3 years that $40 will last for and it's practically insignificant.

4) administration - for the most part, linux administration comes down to editing text files.

Correct. The value of the unix administrator comes significantly from his ability to remember the dozens of different configuration file formats and their locations in different versions of each *nix OS.

if your admin can't edit text files and read man pages and other documentation, i wouldn't want him working on any servers, let alone servers that try to force your hand with GUI tools or make you edit a cryptic registry file.

HTF is using GUI admin tools "forcing your hand" ? How is editing "cryptic registry files" (a very rare occurrence adminning Windows) any different to editing cryptic text files (a very common occurrence adminning unix) ?

Also, one big advantage of GUI admin tools over hand-editing text files is that they provide input validation.

so not only is your hardware supporting more users, but you've removed possible distractions from your employees while saving money and helping your admins learn something. everybody wins!

You have not demonstrated how any of the above would actually occur in reality.