Why are they still using Windows??
I think it’s just because that’s what most people know as an OS and know how to use it. Although every company in the world would save money by using Linux for these things since it is free.
It’s free to install, but can be costly to support. Both on the sysadmin side, as well as from the vendor (ie RHEL) side. This is not to suggest that Windows is necessarily less expensive; it vary well may be the choice the CTO made based on their professional experience or what the market in the area of HQ had more Windows professionals available to hire.
That device costs thousands of dollars. The os license fee is around 35-50. It barely even registers in the grand total. Add to that the well known MS management and reporting tools and everybody choses the MS variant. They know it, they can use it and the store staff can even do first line support themselves lowering the tco even more.
That’s it.
Edit:typos
I always assumed the os licence costed an insane amount for corporate use
It does add up. Throw some zeros at the end of those costs depending on how many seats you’re filling that need to use a computer.