[PLUG] MS-sponsored study finds Linux fastest-growing OS

[Bill Jonas <bj@netaxs.com>]

This isn't intended as a Microsoft bash, but this story was pointed out
on another list I subscribe to, and I thought it was interesting.

"OFFICIAL: Linux is the fastest growing O/S." is the title of a news
article at the below URL.  What I found most interesting about this was
that right up at the top there was a line that said, "Sponsored
by: Microsoft".  I wonder if that was referring to the web
page/advertisements, or if it was the actual study that they
sponsored?  If it was the study they sponsored, I confess to a bit of
mild surprise about that.  My first thought, if it was the second
possibility, was that this is related to the antitrust lawsuit.  But
that doesn't make sense.  The DOJ never accused them of being a monopoly
in the server market, only on the desktop.

Anyway, about the article itself -- it says that right now Linux
represents about 6% of OS sales worldwide.  They don't dwell on that,
but that rather impressive in and of itself, at least to me.  I wonder
if the 6% represents a figure including OEM pre-installs.  But then it
also goes on to say that Linux sales grew 166% from Q4 of 98 to Q4 of
99.  Sweet!  (The article goes on to talk about Linux server market
share breakdown among a handful of the biggest players, but it'd be kind
of silly of me to rehash the entire article here.)  I find it
interesting that even with its rather smallish limit on the number of
processes, memory, and disk, file, and swap space sizes, that Linux is
being adopted as quickly as it is.  My guess would be the momentum
behind it, which started because of the "sexy" GPL, "viral" though it
may be.  Maybe also because although it emulates Unix, it is perceived
as "fresh and new" since it's rather young and makes a break with the
AT&T codebase.  (AFAIK, the BSD brethren don't have limitations as low
as Linux.  Sure, they're a bit harder to install, but that's what you
pay sysadmins for, right? ;) )

http://www.it-analysis.com/00-04-14-3.html

And please, comments about MS need to stay above the belt.  ;)

Bill
-- 
"I couldn't give him advice in business and he couldn't give me
advice in technology." --Linus Torvalds, about why he wouldn't
be interested in meeting Bill Gates
Harry Browne for President:      http://www.harrybrowne2000.org/
Visit me at                      http://www.netaxs.com/~bj/


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