How would they deal with support? Note how the article mentions that Microsoft is providing second level support for this.
I don't believe any of the Linux companies have provided desktop support for the masses. And support wouldn't be just for the OS, but the whole experience - printers, scanners, things that plug in in various ways, networking, ISP connections - everything. Note that Microsoft don't have to deal with those things - the burden is on a printer manufacturer to tell the user how to make it work with Windows, but for Linux the burden would be on the distro.
The users would also be new to Linux which would incur a greater support load. Turned around, if you worked for a major Linux distro and Vizio approached you for a desktop support contract, how much would you charge per user and how many staff would you need? Would it be economically viable?
I don't believe any of the Linux companies have provided desktop support for the masses. And support wouldn't be just for the OS, but the whole experience - printers, scanners, things that plug in in various ways, networking, ISP connections - everything. Note that Microsoft don't have to deal with those things - the burden is on a printer manufacturer to tell the user how to make it work with Windows, but for Linux the burden would be on the distro.
The users would also be new to Linux which would incur a greater support load. Turned around, if you worked for a major Linux distro and Vizio approached you for a desktop support contract, how much would you charge per user and how many staff would you need? Would it be economically viable?