Cost is never an issue so 1 and 4 are out. The added value of Microsoft Acepta for instance increases value to sell a company. Linux has not achieved that (and never will due to not being a commercial entity). 2: Microsoft malware is due to wrong security settings and users that do stupid things. Easily solvable. Only 3 is valid. But again: lower cost is NOT a selling point for Linux. It is the lack of support. It is the lack of a commericial background. And many more things like that.

You say 4 should be out?

@Rinzwind "Cost is never an issue." OP literally stated that cost would be the main reason to switch. What is your point?

I agree with @Rinzwind - Windows has some very appealing features for business for which there are no open source alternates. Accounting would be another area.

@bodhi.zazen, accounting which area? Linux doesn't have everything no OS does and that's not what I am trying to say. But I know it is good alternative to Windows ( and a good one) when given a try, Windows users are just suffering from a phobia of trying something unknown or new.

payroll, large accounts, inventory, shipping and tracking, etc. Personal accounting accounting is not too bad. Something as an alternate to quickbooks for business is needed.

Good @bodhi.zazen my point Windows has its good points and Linux does too, but when some say Linux is off limit when they know nothing about Linux then they need to be better informed so they will make better choices whether Windows or Linux. Linux is getting there just as Windows got here, :-)! I wish I could give you more points for your answer but another thanks for it.

@Bib-lost in my experience (30 years experience with Unix. Xenix and Linux) other things matter. Like politics and the ability to sell the company. The person that started the company tends to want custom made software. The 2nd generation owning the company, if not raised in the company tends to look at methods to --personally- make a lot of money by selling the company to investors. And those investors want SAP or Microsoft.

@Rinzwind There's no doubt that there are many reasons institutions might hesitate to switch to Linux, a lack of support and compatibility being a major one. For a governmental institution, though, I do not think resale value is generally one of them. This is just a conjecture of mine; I'm interested in hearing any experiences you might have had with this.

This still doesn't answer why they should choose Ubuntu out of all the distros.

@Worse_Username the question isn't about Ubuntu but Linux with an intent to use Ubuntu being Linux! And my answer has to do with Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu Ubuntu...

@George is Ubuntu the most Linux distro though? Also if the question isn't about ubuntu like you say it is, does it really belong in here?

@Rinzwind in this question it is not about a company but a part of local government. Maybe we should ask the taxpayers if cost is never an issue.. what do you think they will answer?

@Worse_Username If the question was "Advantages of Ubuntu Over Other Linux distros` then your earlier point would be ok but that's not the question!

@George False Dichotomy much?

@George Under Software there should to be a subcategory for the Users. In the majority of cases most users simply use a word processing program and/or a spreadsheet. Few go into exotic programs; and if they do, they seem self-motivated to learn. Furthermore, the majority of users don't really interact with the OS, all they want to do is access the installed software to perform their tasks. PS: I will acknowledge that there is some specialized software that is not available for LINUX and that would be a problem.

@Worse_Username Not really at all. The question is asking one thing, and you're off asking a completely separate thing. If you are curious about that, I would recommend making that a question instead of a comment on an answer of an unrelated question. ;)

@Bib-lost - Linux has the same level of paid support as Windows - RHEL and Canonical both offer paid support. RHEL has some of the best documentation available on the web. access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-enterprise-linux and access.redhat.com/support and redhat.com/en/services/certification

@Rinzwind this is about a local goverment ... do you want to sell your city?