*sigh*
This should have been a thread dedicated to simple jokes and winks....
The whole issue is non comparable in the first place. With windows, every developer has to take care of proper installation methods and distribution of the program.
With a linux distribution, these parts are taken care off by the distribution of your choice.
If anything, you could compare a linux distribution to a windows installation that has been PEed to death with most programs out there and a custom version checking/update system.
There are attempts of packet managers for windows, mainly in the form of searchable online archives like download.com.
While we are at this right now, why do so many developers for windows forget that a config file is all you need for 90% of all programs? While the idea of the registry is bloody genious, it is absolutely overabused.
My installation experience with linux is pretty good though. If it isn't in the repo, 95% of sources simply work with:
tar xvzf something
./configure
make
make install
From those that don't work right this way, setting a flag to configure solves 50%. 40% require a fancy lib, but that is usaly pointed out by configure. Now the last 10%, those are interesting
@simonpro, does IDL really soft check for root? Maybe it could be resolved with changing ownership.
Simonpro has a point here. Most commercial programs I have seen really are quite painfull to install. Usaly not flexible directory wise, yet require spread out files and sometimes even manual linking and registering libaries.