Another day another report showing Linux and open source may be doing better than previously estimated. IDC has had a tough year when when it comes to server market share tracking – some of its biggerst clients even decamped to Gartner for their server market share press releases. So now the company has a new methodology that counts Linux installed on old boxes- a grey market if ever there was one. you mean nobody shipped any boxes but an OS got installed? how can that be? Apparently “Linux is no longer a fringe player”… you don’t say.
The overall Linux market is far larger than previous estimates show, a new study says.
In an analysis released late Tuesday, market research firm IDC estimated that the Linux market — including servers, PCs and packaged software — is expected to register a 26% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over five years, reaching a whopping $35.7 billion by 2008.
I guess the chaps and chapesses at OpenLogic, SpikeSource and SourceLabs, which are trying to help companies build and deploy apps to reliable open source infrastructures, with slightly different approaches, will be asking Santa for IDC subscriptions for Christmas…
Alex Bosworth says:
December 17, 2004 at 1:02 am
These studies just confirm what I think everyone already knew, Linux and open source in general is showing no signs of slowing down.
There are continuing hurdles though, if you look at reasons why people will have not adopted open source, there will need to be professional support available, marketting, training, etc.
Also I think a lot of open source projects which have been in development for years are only now being released or have competitive features.