Unless architecture of Aloha has substantially changed, you also be running dangerously close to your connection limit for your Master terminal as well. In your case, you should probably be fine, but I always got a little nervous when using XP on the FOH approaching 10 terms because sometimes there are other connections that need to be made beyond the Aloha software or behind the scenes for other applications.
What Dauphin2 says regarding the Windows 2008 is true, they may be telling you what they'd rather see it on it than what you want - possibly more an issue of their preference. Where I absolutely disagree is that Windows server environments require more expensive hardware. It's true that they generally cost more because they are doing more powerful jobs (and the OS is more), but that's really not the case with most Aloha installations. I've installed 2008 on plenty of consumer-grade hardware (i.e. nothing all that fancy) with excellent results.
I am not sure what has changed in the days of NCR, but generally speaking you're stuck with your dealer. The truth is, in probably 50% or more of cases, it's a just a simply a matter of the merchant being angry about prices or not wanting to pay an old invoice. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of legit service complaints against Aloha dealers, but it's hard for the developer to sort it all out. The way most companies handle this is the dealer has to agree release the client to another dealer, but sometimes they'll do it without dealer consent in extreme cases.
