For Enterprise the licensing costs are part of a support agreement - and Enterprise actually uses MS support all the time.
Using Linux means you either contract out to a qualified support org, or bring that expertise in-house, when you already have an entire IT structure that’s very familiar with Windows (in Enterpsie, anyway). That world just can’t get away from MS.
With devices like these (Point of Sale), it’s probably all contracted to a third party anyway, which is much smaller orgs, usually (I’ve deployed a couple). Those companies may benefit by using Linux, as they can purpose-configure the OS and (as you said) not have licensing costs - plus they can run less expensive hardware (which they do anyway, even with Windows, and performance sucks because of it). They likely already have the Linux expertise in-house as they either built the systems themselves, or at least had a major hand in the design.
Yeah, I’ve had to do volume licensing before and this whole support spiel is bs. Big companies hire support firms like Tata Consulting Services or smaller firms for end user support. Medium businesses sometimes do that or have in house IT handle it. I’ve never heard of anyone ever getting paid support from Microsoft. Don’t even know how one would go about hiring it.
Ironically it’s the same as normal customers. You call the support phone number with your credit card ready and just pay a one-time fee for the issue you’re calling about, no matter how long it takes to resolve. It’s not terribly expensive for an organization, but definitely not something an end user would want to shell out
Makes sense, it beats paying licensing for every screened device.
It’s a tradeoff.
For Enterprise the licensing costs are part of a support agreement - and Enterprise actually uses MS support all the time.
Using Linux means you either contract out to a qualified support org, or bring that expertise in-house, when you already have an entire IT structure that’s very familiar with Windows (in Enterpsie, anyway). That world just can’t get away from MS.
With devices like these (Point of Sale), it’s probably all contracted to a third party anyway, which is much smaller orgs, usually (I’ve deployed a couple). Those companies may benefit by using Linux, as they can purpose-configure the OS and (as you said) not have licensing costs - plus they can run less expensive hardware (which they do anyway, even with Windows, and performance sucks because of it). They likely already have the Linux expertise in-house as they either built the systems themselves, or at least had a major hand in the design.
FWIW, buying a Windows license doesn’t allow actually get you any kind of support - you still gotta pay for that. The license is just the shakedown.
Source: a guy that deals with this bullshit once a year at renewal time
Yeah, I’ve had to do volume licensing before and this whole support spiel is bs. Big companies hire support firms like Tata Consulting Services or smaller firms for end user support. Medium businesses sometimes do that or have in house IT handle it. I’ve never heard of anyone ever getting paid support from Microsoft. Don’t even know how one would go about hiring it.
Ironically it’s the same as normal customers. You call the support phone number with your credit card ready and just pay a one-time fee for the issue you’re calling about, no matter how long it takes to resolve. It’s not terribly expensive for an organization, but definitely not something an end user would want to shell out