New servers march to Linux drummer

More than a quarter of all newly installed servers today are running under

control of the Linux operating software, according to the latest market research

compiled by International Data Corp. And shipments of Linux software for running

network servers computers are expected to grow faster over the next four years

than competing software from companies Microsoft, Sun and others, IDC said.

IDC said that despite its growing popularity, Windows NT/2000 will remain the

most popular server software overall. But Linux will be second in terms of use

on newly installed servers. Shipments of Linux server products will grow more

than 28 per cent a year to 4.7 million units in 2004 from 1.3 million in 1999.

Linux revenue will also grow faster than the rest of the market, increasing 23

per cent annually.

Still this growth will result in total Linux revenue of only $85 million in

2004 as Linux is available free or at a very low cost compared to rival server

software packages. Leading suppliers of Linux server software, such as Red Hat

and TurboLinux, will have to develop other sources of revenue, most notably in

the area of support services.

Linux will have a dramatic effect on the server OS software market in that

sales growth of the overall market will slow to a trickle. While unit shipments

of server operating systems are expected to grow at an annual rate of almost 17

per cent from 1999 to 2004, revenue will grow barely more than one per cent

annually.

In 1999, Linux server software installations accounted for 25 percent of the

market, up from 17 per cent in 1998. Microsoft’s Windows NT maintained a 38

per cent share.