“From its humble beginnings back in 1991, Linux has grown at a
rapid rate. International Data Corp. (IDC) pegged Linux operating
system revenue growth at 23.4 percent in 2008. IDC projects that by
2012, Linux operating system revenue will cross $1 billion for the
first time, reaching as much as $1.2 billion. Not bad for a free
operating system.“While you can still download many free versions of Linux
online, for convenience sake, several vendors offer user-friendly
versions and charge a fee for support. Red Hat and Novell are the
primary desktop Linux vendors, accounting for nearly 95 percent of
the operating system revenue in 2008, according to IDC. Further,
these two companies claimed 90 percent of worldwide Linux
subscribers during 2008.““The Linux desktop has developed very rapidly over the
past few years,” said Nick Carr, marketing director of Red
Hat. “From a technology viewpoint the Linux desktop is well
developed, feature rich and mature. It is low cost, secure and
manageable, and it’s very well suited to a wide range of
customer deployments.”“But Novell and Red Hat aren’t having it all their own
way. Another Linux distribution for the desktop is on the rise
— and it is completely free. Known as Ubuntu, it provides
support via online communities, and it’s gaining ground.
Further, Red Hat offers a free version called Fedora, which is also
rising in popularity.”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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