....Stunt Microsoft Growth.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=2111821 quote:
Developers Turn to Linux, Stunt Microsoft Growth
Sun January 26, 2003 04:28 PM ET
By Siobhan Kennedy
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mike Petitjean has been a dedicated Microsoft user for more than a decade, but now the software developer says he's so fed up with the high prices and unreliable systems that he's switching to Linux.
Linux's popularity with programmers has already managed to make a huge dent on the market share of rival software Unix and now it's gradually threatening to do the same with Microsoft's dominance of the business software market. And giants such as IBM IBM.N , Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N , and Dell Computer Corp. DELL.O are lending a helping hand.
"Windows is a lousy platform," said Petitjean, who was attending the LinuxWorld show in New York last week. Platforms are technology jargon for the operating system software, like Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O Windows and Unix, which are used to run business computers and servers.
"It's just not reliable enough."
Petitjean runs a small company in Frankfort, Kentucky, that writes software programs for the state government and businesses. He's used Microsoft's Windows operating system since the early versions of the software but now he wants to swap to Linux because he says Microsoft is too expensive, too difficult to use and not reliable enough.
"We want to offer software that's simple to set up and help companies run their businesses without them having to become computer gurus," said Petitjean, who was wearing a "Linux Rocks" t-shirt.
Today, Linux has superseded Unix as one of the most popular operating systems used by scientific, government and academic institutions -- and increasingly financial services firms -- that need to crunch huge amounts of data and don't want to spend hundreds of millions on software systems like Unix or Windows that keep them locked in to one technology.
Linux has been slower to take hold in businesses running the critical day-to-day operations that keep business going.
But as companies like International Business Machines and Hewlett-Packard have entered the scene, that's started to change, analysts said.
"The rebels have been rabble rousing about Linux for five or six years, and until the end of 2001 for the most part nobody cared," said Tom Berquist, an analyst with Goldman Sachs. "But all of a sudden in 2002, there were a huge number of announcements from all the big companies that all agreed to support Linux.
A look around the showfloor at LinuxWorld showed what he meant. Sure the smaller companies and diehard Linux developers were out in force, but it was the tech giants -- IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun Microsystems Inc. SUNW.O and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD.N -- that stole the limelight.
They were all out guns blazing, showing bigger, better and faster versions of their computer systems and microprocessors running Linux. For the first time, Hewlett Packard said it earned $2 billion in revenues from Linux in 2002, while IBM said it made $1 billion from selling systems with the free software.
STUNTING MICROSOFT'S GROWTH
Linux started out in 1991 as a project by University of Helsinki student Linus Torvalds to teach himself how to program a version of the two-decade-old Unix operating system used to run powerful computers called servers. A request for help posted to an Internet discussion group led to offers by other programmers around the world.
The result was an operating system that was essentially free for individuals and organizations to use -- if they pay for services and support -- as long as they agreed that any changes made to the software's inner workings were free for all to use.
According to research firm IDC, Linux server revenue grew 27 percent worldwide in the third quarter of 2002, even while the overall market for server computers declined 5.6 percent. Microsoft still owns about 42 percent of that market, IDC says, but Linux is gradually gaining speed with 26 percent of all servers being shipped with the free software. Unix has about 12 percent.
While nobody predicts that Microsoft will be eclipsed by Linux any time soon, Berquist said the growth of Linux in the datacenter -- the centralized stacks of computers used to run the networks of far-flung organizations -- could stunt the software giant's growth in the long-term.
That's because right now, Microsoft is all-powerful at the department level, running the computers that house business software programs, e-mail systems and file and printer servers.
"On a long-term basis, the success of Linux blunts the opportunity of Microsoft to go into the datacenter in a meaningful way," Berquist said, adding that as Linux gets a stronger foothold in the datacenter, it will gradually gain more acceptance at the department level too.
And as more and more software makers, like Oracle Corp. ORCL.O , SAP AG SAPG.DE and Computer Associates CA.N endorse Linux, the speed at which it encroaches on Microsoft's turf will start to pick up.
"The major difference this year is that we started to see people come through asking real business questions," said Jon "Maddog " Hall, executive director of Linux International, a non-profit organization which seeks to educate businesses and individuals about the benefits of using Linux.
But the success of Linux also depends on tearing down the psychological barriers, Berquist says.
"The argument is valid from a technical perspective but it doesn't address the brand value that people perceive around Microsoft," he said, noting that right now he doesn't see any evidence of Linux replacing Microsoft on desktop computers.
Petitjean, the software programmer agrees. "It's safe from a bureaucratic standpoint to chose Microsoft," he said. "But you just can't run businesses that way."
nice. linux picks up speed & people realize that M$ is not a viable solution.
