The only attack that can affect any OS is DOS. If enough people hit on a web site, it can't take the load. Windoze will likely crash, Linux will just try to take it and do the best it can.
If for example my system were a web server, it could probably take a few hundred people. If 100,000 tried to access it all at once, it would not crash but it would be so slow that you would think it had and would likely time out on your side. It would not be able to serve the data fast enough.
If I were running windoze server and had the same thing happen, windoze would likely not respond, even at the terminal in front of the machine. Linux can handle the overload. Windoze just throws up it's hands and says I need a reboot.
As for viruses and such, if you have a good root password, it would be VERY difficult for a virus to infect Linux. Linux was built with security as a major focus, not a feature or side note. Windoze just gives it a shot and hopes for the best. Short of re-writing all the code from scratch, windoze will never be as secure as Linux. I don't see that happening either.
Later
