It is not the hardware designed for windows but the driver code, which is most probably written in basic C, which most probably can be cross-compiled for usage outside Windows – so instead of millions of dollars in new hardware it is really thousands in porting the drivers and GUIs to the new platform. What works on windows in 90% cases is an easy porting job for the manufacturer, they just won't be doing it unless someone stops paying for windows version and be willing to pay for alternative platform port.

Anyway, i totally agree with you. The convincing part here is short of clear and obvious for administration types. Until MS finally bricks it's OS and renders it totally unusable they can continue to do whatever shit they want and keep mocking their loyal customers forever.