I was working in the industry at the time, and my feeling was that while a few big studios went with Linux the vast majority of studios (especially among the smaller studios) went with NT.
Every big studio and the majority of medium studios converted to Linux once Houdini and Maya were ported. At the time the industry was dominated by five big American studios and 3-5 big London studios, all of which went the Linux route, not the NT route. Maybe you worked on multiple small studios that jumped on windows, but that wasn't the norm nor was windows the driving force is providing a smooth path from Irix.
