A survey conducted by research giant International Data Corp. has found the use of Linux has exploded in Australian and New Zealand organisations.
IDC questioned 330 CIOs and IT managers about their use of and attitudes to Linux. The analysts found the percentage of respondents using Linux servers has nearly doubled since 1999, up to 32.4 percent. Organisations not using Linux are still in the majority, and the survey also found that 4.9 percent of respondents had actually rejected the use of the open-source platform.
Concerns associated with deploying Linux were also cited in the survey report, with 42.7 percent of organisations citing a lack of in-house skills as a factor, 37.1 percent citing a decision to consolidate on Windows 2000, and 36.8 percent concerned about the disadvantages of rolling out "yet another platform". The most common concern among the survey group was the lack of availability of applications for Linux, with 43.5 percent of CIOs and IT managers surveyed apprehensive about this.
IDC's director of user programmes, Catherine Bennett, told ZDNet Australia that Linux isn't being rejected as a matter of principle or strategy, and is likely to catch on as the market environment changes. "Clearly these results show that the objection to the widespread adoption of Linux is not primarily strategic," she said. "As the availability of appropriate skills and applications improves IDC believed that far more organisations will go down this path."
Bennett argues that as the open-source operating system has grown in popularity, traditional "philosophical" differences have fallen by the wayside, marking a shift in attitude likely to see Linux succeed in the top end of town.
"Should significant advantages then emerge from... evaluations, these organisations will be faced with a decision on whether to extend its use to at least their Windows servers," Bennett said. "At that point this survey shows that there would not appear to be philosophical objections to stand in the way of widespread adoption."
While the survey reflected a boost in popularity as a server technology, the same could not be said for Linux use on the desktop. The survey found Linux/Unix and Macintosh continuing to be "relatively insignificant at the desktop, accounting for 1.2 and 1.7 percent respectively". IDC has predicted that Macintosh will continue to lose share, down to 1.4 percent, with Linux doubling its market share to 2.9 percent.
Talkback
I think that you will see an increase in the use of Macintosh as it is nothing more then FreeBSD with a very nice GUI wrapper around it. There are more programs available to the consumer including (but not limited to) Games, Imaging, Video, Documentation, Scientific, Security, and much more. Everything that you can get in Linux can VERY EASILY be ported to the Macintosh now. With the advertising industry on the growth again, you will again see the growth of the Macintosh, as creatives will NEVER use a Linux or PC based machine due to the overall HID.
Why do these companies still predict the fall of the Macintosh, I will never understand. These has been going on for the past 15 years and it still is around and grows a little in one niche but falls a little in another... and the cycle continues. Look at the fact that Apple had the highest growth in Portables but desktop dropped, but now that the G5 (64-bit) is available you will see an increase in desktop sales and a slight slow down in portables... I am just waiting for them to enter in the the Mobile market, just as they have done with the MP3 market. The ipod hit the market with a HUGE BANG that even took SONY, Creative, and everyone else by surprise. Imagine what an iCell could do to that industry.
In conclusion, Macintosh is here to stay and will continue to grow a little here and there, yes even in the server market. So when articles like this are put together by some 1 year graduate, please senior management remind then of Windows 3.11, spank then on their as$ and let them know that it just isn't going to happen.
Mac and Linux/Unix are built to play nice...
As a Mac OS X user, I am using (misusing too!) and learning so many UNIX commands that its not even funny.
Recently when I had to setup a Discussion board, I could do it using phpBB on a FreeBSD hosting provider without much problems. The only problem I had was quickly solved beacuse of my - now better - knowledge of UNIX commands. I can sysadmin a UNIX install as well as any fresh UNIX graduate from a traning center without ever having gone to class for it!
The number of Unix/GPL/OpenSource programs ported to the Mac is increasing everyday - SNORT, OpenOffice (X11), wGet, are the ones I use - but a whole lot is available at http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/index.php
So if you want to learn UNIX/Linux while having the most user friendly interface around, try Mac OS X.
AM