Windows vs Linux same price: who's buying?

Noticed Contabo and OVHcloud now charge identical rates for Debian and Windows templates. Used to be +$8-12/month for Windows. Who's actually choosing Windows at parity, and why?

My theory: virtualization tax on Windows is hidden elsewhere—maybe higher density per node, or SPLA bulk deals masking per-VM cost. Linux at same price should be strictly better margin for provider, yet they price-match.

Curious about procurement psychology here. Enterprise inertia?

We've observed this shift across multiple providers over the past 18 months.

— Windows SPLA costs have compressed due to volume agreements at the datacenter level, reducing the per-VM spread that used to justify the premium.
— Linux adoption in enterprise is higher than ever, but the "same price" framing is partly marketing: Windows instances often ship with lower baseline specs or stricter cgroup limits to preserve margin.
— The "virtualization tax" Kate mentions is real, but it's increasingly paid by all users through uniform pricing rather than line-item transparency.

We don't set these rates, but we do note them. :)

— Admin

I mean, why pay for the managed template when you can install from ISO and handle SPLA yourself? Actually, why pay for any VPS when you can colo a NUC and run Proxmox with docker compose for everything?

The pricing parity is a trap. They want you to think "same price, might as well use what I know." But what you know is a lifetime of patch Tuesdays and reverse proxy headaches that IIS makes ten times worse. I run Linux at home, Linux at OVHcloud, Linux everywhere. Caddy in docker compose, one file, automatic HTTPS. Windows users are paying for familiarity, not functionality.

Contabo FRA-Linux:   12ms home, route via DTAG
Contabo FRA-Windows: 12ms home, route via DTAG
OVHcloud AMS-Linux:   18ms home, route via Cogent
OVHcloud AMS-Windows: 18ms home, route via Cogent

No route difference. Same hypervisor, same NIC passthrough. If there's a virtualization tax on Windows, it's not in the network stack.

Route via Cogent adds 6ms vs DTAG direct. Not Windows-related.