Published at LXer:

Continued from : Is your company afraid of Linux? (Part 2 of 3) Fear #4 (Support!): This is where Linux shines. Because of the open nature of the Linux community it is considered to be the most widely supported platform and the most inexpensive. To get professional support for your Microsoft server platform, you have to either pay for a professional support plan from a Microsoft Partner or from Microsoft themselves. I’ve never run into an SMB that had purchased a professional support plan from Microsoft. To obtain one-time support for your Windows server operating system you would pay a per incident fee anywhere from $99 (next business day) to $260 (4 to 6 hour response). No support is included with the purchase of the Microsoft operating system itself. So these fees are on top of the licensing fees you pay for the right to install and use the Windows OS. Licensing for Windows Server 2008 ranges anywhere from $500 to $4000 which doesn’t include the client access licenses (CALs) which run around $40 per desktop or per user on your network.

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Support? That's what LQ is for! Post any question about Linux and the 400,000+ members here will be sure to answer your question -- and you'll get answers from possibly hundreds of people, not just one when you call M$!

Yes, Google also will give you instant support. And yes, you can easily open an IRC client as well -- not to mention you have plenty of other options (mailing lists, anyone?) that can easily give you a quick response to your problem. Oh, and what about VoIP? Google now has a plugin for Firefox and Chrome that allows you to talk on the phone free (if you live in the United States) with Gmail. Now, all you have to do is call the friend who converted you to Linux via that and ask for help. It's that simple!