__/ [ Rafael ] on Saturday 17 February 2007 03:46 \__
> Doug Mentohl wrote:
>> "The penguin?s come of age. What began as a battle between
>> proprietary and open source Linux software, started by geeks around
>> the world, isn?t plain tech rhetoric anymore. It?s now a mainstream
>> commercial platform ?"
>>
>>
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Is_Windows_losing_out__Linux_gaining/articleshow/1559206.cms
>
>> For anyone who had doubts that Linux might work in India,
>> considering the tardy nature of tech adoption here, there are IDC
>> figures that show that in terms of server shipments, Linux had a
>> market share of 19.3% in 2005, 21.1% in 2006, and expected to
>> increase to 25.7% in 2010. The market share for Windows too will grew
>> from 63.1%, to 64% in 2006, and is expected to grow to 65% in 2010.
>> That?s impressive, but even more so when you realise that all
>> estimates of Linux are actually conservative because many
>> organisations use free downloads that can?t even be downtracked. This
>> can be quite a challenge for analysts tracking Linux growth because
>> it?s common for them to find organisations where Linux is being used
>> and they?ve never known about it before.
>
> This contradicts what much of the recent anti-Linux take is on this
> Usenet group. Linux is gaining. They need to revise their market share
> statistical assumptions (theories) to be anywhere near close to the truth.
Numerical analysis of the market had its methods invalidated by this
relatively new phenomenon which is Free software. It's not possible to track
deployments of Linux. Meager attempts like the Linux Counter only have
ambition, but Linux is no longer the O/S of thousands of hobbyists. Linux
/is/ the industry in many places. Counters serve no purpose anymore. Nobody
bothers to be counted because the need to show presence is drowned in a sea
of large corporate users. With the IP threats and extortions that follow the
Novell deal [1], expect those users to keep low profile. No longer will they
hide use of Linux just because it's their competitive advantage and part of
their secret recipe for success (think Google).
[1]
http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=idgml-c11627ed-d99b-49d2-983d-d22856181888&Portal=252cc78a-a947-4072-84be-f50cac8ec48e&ParaStart=0&ParaEnd=14&direction=next&News=Daily+ITwire&Next=Next
Allison: Yes, that's true, actually. I mean I have had people
come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been
threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had
essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free
software that they were using, which they then cannot redistribute. I
think that would be the restriction. I would have to look quite
carefully. So, essentially that's not allowed. But they're
not telling anyone about it. They're completely doing it off the
record.
The problem with the Novell deal is -- Novell gave Microsoft what
Microsoft dearly wanted, which is a public admission that they think
that Linux violates the Microsoft patent.
--
~~ Greetings
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Black holes are where God is divided by zero"
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
roy pts/4 Thu Feb 15 04:56 - 04:57 (00:00)
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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