[ Thanks to bdearing for
this link. ]
“Linux stock prices may be south of the border, but analysts’
predictions for Linux’s market share continue to defy gravity and
head north. What does that mean in terms of trends for the coming
year? … When I asked Stacey Quandt, Linux analyst at Giga
Information Group, for her two cents, she proposed that 2001 be
designated the “Year of Managed Services” for Linux.”
“But Quandt’s got a point. When she is talking “managed
services,” Quandt’s talking about the kind of software-update
services provided by Eazel via its Nautilus environment to Dell
Linux desktops; by service provider LinuxCare; and by Red Hat, with
its Red Hat Network service for deploying and managing open source
platforms.”
“Maybe Quandt is onto something. While leading high-tech
companies–like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Sun–are tripping over
one another to claim they provide better/faster/cheaper
software-as-a-service platforms, I haven’t heard a single Linux
vendor make such boasts. Yet the managed Linux services from Eazel
and Red Hat are poised to deliver some, though not all, of the kind
of Web services that the proprietary companies have
outlined.”