Conversations With My Dad About Open Source

Aug 07, 2008, 22:30 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Bill Baker)

[ Thanks to Bryan Richard for this link. ]

"It is only fair, however, to point out that in 1999, Microsoft’s market cap was north of $500 billion. Today, it is around half that. In fact, since 2002, Red Hat’s stock price is up 190 percent, while Microsoft has lost 20 percent, though Microsoft has been paying a dividend since 2003. But, by the measure of pure stock performance, open source wins hands down.

"From a revenue perspective, which one could argue is a much more accurate measure of industry impact, the story is a bit different. For its fiscal year ending February 2000, Red Hat booked $42.5 million in sales. In FY 2007, it was $400 million - so 10x revenue growth in eight years, but holding at less than half a billion. Microsoft, in that same period, grew revenue from $23 billion to $51 billion""

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