“The IDC study suggests the market for training
professionals on the open-source operating system could grow to
between $118.9 million and $311 million by 2004. The market in 1999
was worth $10.9 million, said Michael Brennan, a senior
analyst with IDC’s IT education and training research program.”
“The rapid deployment of Linux servers is sparking the need for
greater understanding of the ever-evolving operating system,
Brennan said. In the overall scheme, Linux is “pretty small” in the
IT training market as Microsoft’s Windows NT continues to be the
most heavily used server operating system. Linux is second, while
Unix and Novell’s NetWare come in third and fourth,
respectively.”
“Four categories of training providers will gain from the
growing market. Those include Linux distribution vendors… server
hardware vendors… Linux service providers such as LinuxCare,
Linux Professional Institute, and SAIR; and IT training vendors
such as Global Knowledge, Learning Tree International, Productivity
Point International, ProsoftTraining.com and SmartForce.”