“Like the little engine that could, Linux is speeding ahead
as a locomotive force on Wall Street. But it is still huffing and
puffing up a steep hill to reach resellers and
corporations.“
“Linux companies collectively garnered less than $1 billion in
worldwide revenue in 1999,approximately $830 million,compared with
$34 billion for Unix/proprietary vendors, $2- billion for Novell
Inc. NetWare and almost $10 billion for Microsoft Corp. Windows NT,
according to San Jose, Calif.-based market-researcher
Dataquest.”
“Even market leader Red Hat Inc. is having a tough time lining
up channel partners. “We’re out here making many outbound calls, at
least 150 per day, trying to get resellers into the Red Hat space,
but we’re finding it a bit of a challenge,” said Curt Tueffert,
vice president of sales at Jones Business Systems Inc., Houston,
adding Red Hat birthed its enhanced channel program in December.
“Resellers understand you can get the software for free or buy just
one copy, but they know you don’t get support for free.”