Without any doubt, Linux is a clear winner via the Raspberry Pi offering as many new Linux apps will be written by new programmers and students who normally would not have had the access to a Linux OS based computer.
The early offering of 10 brand new Raspberry boards on eBay have been selling for 3,000 US dollars each, with 100% going to UK children's charity's.
http://is.gd/D0uI8Z As noted previously the target prices for the Raspberry is 25 and 35 US dollars each depending on RAM size and USB port access.
Whichever Linux OS distro used by the Raspberry Pi will likely see a large influx of new applications which fully benefits that Linux OS distro as well as educate new users on a specific Linux OS distribution, hence the very reason I began this thread to point to the very large advantages in promoting a Linux Mint OS for the Raspberry Pi which could directly translate to a million downstream users and potentially thousands of new applications.