Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Thursday 13 July 2006 16:01 \__
>
> >
> > Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> >> Red Hat Continues Booming Growth in Fiscal Q1
> >>
> >> ,----[ Quote ]
> >> | For the quarter, Red Hat reports software subscription sales of $71.5
> >> | million, up 45 percent compared to the prior year's first quarter...
> >> `----
> >
> > My how our baby has grown!!
> > Bob Young must be a proud poppa.
> >
> >> http://www.itjungle.com/tlb/tlb071106-story01.html
> >
> > Let's play with some numbers shall we?
>
>
> Earlier on I came across the following report, which was updated some time
> today (it emerged as new in the RSS feed):
>
> http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=rhat
>
>
> > Average support fee $70
> > Supported copies 1 million?
> > Unsupported (legacy) 10 million?
> > Fedora (10:1) 10 million?
> > SUSE 20 million?
> > Linspire 10 million?
> > Mandriva 10 million?
> > Ubuntu 20 million?
> > Knoppix 20 million?
> >
> > About 100 million maybe?
> >
> > And only 100 distributions left to account for?
> >
> > OK, so there is probably some double counting. Some of these are just
> > live CDs used for "rescue" operations, and some are "dual boot" where
> > linux is used primarily for special projects and in "free time".
> >
> > I wonder if VMWare Player and Virtual PC are changing the rules a
> > little?
>
>
> Speaking of virtualisation tools, Microsoft has made theirs a free (as in
> beer) download. I guess they would better join the outlandish party than be
> left aside in an empty house.
>
It makes sense for Microsoft.
After all, VMWare player will run on Windows or Linux. Virtual PC only
runs on XP and Win2003.
Microsoft is acutely aware that many of the AmD-64 machines are being
converted to Linux as the primary OS with OEM windows as the client OS.
This is better than being dropped completely, but Microsoft wants to
maintain as much control as it can, for as long as it can.
I think Microsoft also has realized that XP and vista must be VMWARE
friendly. Linux has provided the infrastructure for MS and windows to
coexist. If microsoft tries to force the issuèthey could quickly lose
the whole 64 bit market.
>
> > And then we have the "appliances"
> >
> > Linksys 100 million?
> > D-Link 100 million?
> > NetGear 100 million?
> > Tivo 80 million?
>
>
> The OLPC project might deliver 200-300 mllion Fedora laptops.
>
VM appliances and downloadable players could add another 200-300 Linux
enabled machines.
>
> > PCs sold with Windows this year? 100 million? maybe even only 70
> > million?
> >
> > And Linux seems to be growing about 45% per year.
> > Remember when 20% per year for Microsoft was considered phenomenal
> > growth?
> >
> > Remember the Bamboo Tree?
>
>
> It being eaten away by those are led to the verge of extinction.
No. The bamboo tree grows almost none at the surface for almost 5
years. Then it uses the massive root system that has been growing for
alll those years to grow almost 3 feet per day until it is almost 90
feet tall.
The OSS market is much like this. OSS foundations grow unnoticed for a
few years and then explode onto the scene.
IBM invested $1 Billion in OSS a few years ago. Today OSS technology
returns many times that in profit every quarter.
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