Magical thinking?
Ploughed my way through all this at last and it does seem to be 90% belief that Linux farts pixie dust and so the logistical problems that are stopping Windows version updates (known technology, established in house support) will just disappear as soon as Linux is offered.
Also a lot of "well, obviously they did it wrong" which doesn't really help much. That doesn't change the existing problem of trying to do it right.
I am old enough to forget most of the reasons that bespoke systems running various flavour of Unix died out and were replaced by generic Windows systems but I think the main one might have been that bespoke software ran on Windows on standard hardware which everyone knew and used.
At the time if you wanted to sell a Unix box you had to have all the specialist software ported by the supplier then demonstrated to the customer.
Or you could buy Windows and choose a package written in the USA (huge market so much better market place for software developers) and shop for a cheap hardware deal for PC compatibles.
Where are they now? HP, Data General, NCR, Honeywell, {mumble} and others?
Linux has changed that playing field a lot; you can now shop for commodity hardware and look for your favourite Linux distro but you still have to counter the enormous commercial driver to develop first (only) for Windows.
So moving from Windows to Linux is possible.
It may well have major long term benefits.
However people posting here with experience of working within the NHS seem to be mainly in the "never happen" camp and it is quite possible that they know whereof they speak.
The cost of change is huge, and people see Windows as familiar and low risk.
Things are bad enough already in the NHS. I don't expect there is a massive appetite for a major upheaval in IT.
Kudos to the people demonstrating that it can be done. Dedicated forward thinking enthusiasts. I wish them luck but I'm not going to be holding my breath.
Oh, and IT in general has changed a lot. Dedicated IT specialists are replaced by outsourced support on a different and much cheaper continent. Traditional in house skills are slipping away. Loved by bean counters though. Not the most encouraging environment for a brave new strategy.