Firm shifts From Windows to Linux, reduces support issues by 45%

I noticed in one of the local trade-press outlets today, how a publicly-listed engineering and manufacturing firm shifted many of its workstations from Windows to Linux, effecting a 45% reduction in its support issues, evident even in the first month after the migration.

From the article:
Camillos [to manager of corporate technology services] said that support desk calls showed significant changes when reliance on Windows was reduced. "Literally the month we pushed Linux out to the branches the number of calls to our helpdesk dropped by 45 per cent."

This fits in with my experience in rolling out Linux desktops to customer sites and high-security facilities. A locked-down Linux desktop can deliver designated functionality at a greatly reduced cost of support compared to a standard Windows desktop.

I'll write about this in more detail at some point, but we have one reference site (a high-security government facility) where over 100 Linux desktops needed a total of 5 minutes tech support in their first year of operation. That's not an average of 5 minutes per desktop, but a total across all 100+ desktops.