To chime in suddenly, anyone who works in a large company knows that emails in general indeed go to standard support. If you are responsible for something, very rarely do you get direct feedback. And if, as a client, you suddenly receive a warm encouraging response, chances are this person has no authority to make actual decisions.
Linux is very unlikely to be considered by most manufacturers, in my view and experience. Among top management, i.e. people who make actual decisions, free software is a vague risky concept. They would prefer to surrender to Microsoft or Apple rather than go for Linux - for the most part. They think stereotypes and rarely know reality of the "lower decks".
--
Louigi Verona
http://www.louigiverona.ru/