Why are most (small) IT support companies not interested in supporting Linux? If you are an IT support provider in the London area who can support a small network of Windows XP PCs and a Ubuntu (Samba) Fileserver (which pretty much takes care of itself) please get in touch!
I will post up details when I find someone on this in due course. [Edit opps I should have done more Googling before posting – it looks like Canonical might offer what I am after – but what I am saying here holds up – support for both Windows & Linux from IT support providers is needed…]
I think this could be an interesting/lucrative potential market – stop selling the over priced and bloated MS server offerings and sell the more cost effective and robust Ubuntu Linux based solutions for small businesses. What with web based management systems its got to be the way to go. Particular as lots of basic NAS boxes are going down the embedded Linux route.
Surely some of the saving in licensing costs can be passed on to the customer and some kept back as improved margin? I guess what this really needs to take off is a robust Open Source Email/Calendaring solution (Exchange Server killer) – I suspect Exchange is the reason a lot of businesses still go for Windows Server.