Getting an ASCI Bitcoin Miner to run on Windows is straight forward but getting the correct drivers and terminal commands down to run it is actually more difficult than one would think. So, I would suggest sticking to Windows but if you have an extra Linux machine laying around that you are going to keep on all day, then getting the ASIC miner to work is worth it.

This post has the crucial steps to getting your miner up and running: http://talkaboutbitco.in/setup-asicminer-usb-block-erupter-linux/

It is rare that you will get all the steps to work successfully your first run through so here are some pointers if you get stuck:

• Step 2 – If you are getting errors when trying to do an apt-get update, Step 3 will fail. On your computer, navigate to System Settings > Software Sources. Explore here and remove the sources that apt-get update complained about in the terminal. Additionally, you can update your “Main” mirror to a faster mirror.
• Step 4 – Make sure you are in your home directory otherwise bfgminer will be installed somewhere strange. (In your terminal, “cd”)
• Step 5 – cd bfgminer
• Step 6 – 8 – Hopefully runs with no errors. I was lucky but you might not be. If you fail, you likely did not install everything needed in Step 3.
• Step 9 – Not too easy because I was receiving “too many arguments.” These are the basic ones you will need but keep the quotes: ./bfgminer -o “your pool here” -u “your username here”  -p “your password here”
• Step 9 – If no devices are found, follow the prompts and press M then +. In another terminal, type ls /dev/ and find the device that begins with ttyUSB. Let’s call it ttyUSB?. Mine was ttyUSB0. In the bfgminer terminal, input the location and press enter: erupter:/dev/ttyUSB? . This should be successful with the terminal changing to indicate the found device. Press enter again and your device will start bitcoin mining!

Sources:

• Step by step instructions = http://talkaboutbitco.in/setup-asicminer-usb-block-erupter-linux/
• Fixing apt-get update = http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2116348