[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
“Prediction 1: In Europe, Linux service
provider revenues will flatten, despite continued exponential
growth in new user Linux downloads.“The user base stats will continue to climb, but the number of
subscribers to service provider annual contracts will remain flat
in 2004, as Linux service providers struggle to be as profitable as
commercial software companies, without charging as much for their
products. Some commercial server licensing schemes are now
competitively priced to enterprise versions of Linux. This
competition will intensify in 2004, undermining some of the Linux
pricing differential. Linux service providers don’t really expect
competitors to sit still, do they? Linux in embedded systems,
network appliances, etc. will grow at a high exponential rate,
creating outsourced Linux development contracts for service
providers adapting Linux kernels. Development contracts will
continue to contribute significantly to the profitability of
service providers in 2004…”