“Linux is one of the few technology issues that is really
difficult for analysts to get their heads around. It doesn?t obey
the normal pattern of technology take-up at all, and so it is
easily misunderstood….”
“Linux has made it in the server world. It is difficult to know
how dominant it is, because it is actually impossible to count the
number of server running it. Many college kids graduate as Linux
enthusiasts. They get operational jobs in companies and put Linux
solutions in place without the company even knowing about. There is
no license fee, so nobody knows how to count the numbers
accurately. There may be many servers out there that once ran
Windows or NetWare or SCO Unix, that now run Linux. Apart from that
there are some major Linux users now, including Weather.com and
Google, two of the busiest sites on the web, plus Shell
International and Telia, the largest telco in Scandinavia – and
that is just the tip of the iceberg….”
“This is completely unprecedented. A company launching and
aggressive marketing campaign for a product that it has no claim
over and for which it cannot obtain even one cent in direct
revenues. Nevertheless, IBM is in a strong position because it can
earn revenues from server sales, consultancy, outsourcing and a lot
of other things. Sun, Compaq, Dell and Hewlett-Packard could all
have gone down this road, but none of them showed much enthusiasm
to do so. For them co-existence was the only idea they could
muster. They may regret this.”