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Linux To Ring Up $35B By 2008

Posted by michael on from the money-in-the-bank dept.

al@opensourcebrowser.com pastes "For a theoretically free operating system, Linux is -- and will continue to be -- a cash cow, a research firm said Wednesday as it predicted the OS will bring in more than $35 billion in revenues by 2008. Framingham, Mass.-based IDC said that overall revenue for servers, desktops, and packaged software running on Linux will reach $35.7 billion in the next four years."

10 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Errrr, Dupe by MrWim · · Score: 4, Informative

    See here

  2. Re:Karma points to.. by goon+america · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the article:
    The numbers are higher than earlier estimates by most analysts, in part, said IDC, because it changed it methodology to account for not just Linux on new hardware, but also Linux that's redeployed on existing hardware, and even cases when the open-source OS is used as a guest operating system, such as in a server partitioned with virtualization software to run multiple OSes.

    So, not only are they counting the hardware that linux is running on as being "spent on linux," they're also counting existing hardware on which linux will be installed as being "spent" on linux as well.
  3. And yet... by elid · · Score: 3, Informative
    ...Microsoft generates $10.6 billion in annual revenue from Office alone.

    (source)

  4. Re:I write OSS for Linux by IO+ERROR · · Score: 2, Informative
    So, where's my check? :)

    You need to go get your product into wide use now. On one project I'm involved with, we're working with a certain .com on a project I can't say much about yet, but we're going to give a certain Microsoft product a run for their money, using open source software. I don't expect any of us to see money from the project for at least two years, though you can bet you'll see the product -- when it's ready -- on the front page of slashdot. :)

    In the meantime, keep maintaining your software, and keep getting the word out. If it's good stuff, someone will take notice, and an opportunity to make money off it will come your way.

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  5. Re:BUT WINDOWS IS CHEAPER!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Psst. This stories IDC study was commissioned by the OSDL. Nothing like "getting the facts" you pay for right?

    I hope at least one of your +1 funny mods was doing it for the +1 irony.

  6. Re:and how much do the creators get by jericho4.0 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Nobody starts developing in OSS for the money. And IBM might not be giving paycheck to every OS developer, but they are contributing tons of code, and that's the point.

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  7. Re:Actual revenue for 2004 is $15 billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    fyi the 34b figure for 2008 and 15 for 2004 includes everything - like the price of the actual hardware, transactions run thru the system etc.

    if you'd do this math for MS it would be a lot higher, ibm would most likely win with all the transactions in banks going over them

  8. Or maybe not ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    you sure ? http://www.novell.com/news/press/pressroom/news_br ief/archive/2004/suse_archive/response.html

  9. Re:Actual revenue for 2004 is $15 billion by gregorio · · Score: 3, Informative
    More interesting is the actual value for 2004 - $15 billion. That's a nice number, Note that in comparison, Microsoft's 2004 revenue is about $36 billion. Apple is around $10 billion.
    The 15 billion figure is the *total* direct and indirect profits *related* to Linux. Including Hardware.
  10. Re:Wow, back on the 15th is was only 28 billion by Builder · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dell seem to make good money off of Linux as well, supporting both RHEL and SLES on their server lines and their N models of desktops.

    Sun are in a bad place at the moment, and Solaris 10 x86 HAS to succeed for them to make it through the next 3 years. But they still sell a lot of Red Hat, despite their rants about it.

    Red Hat have some problems. Their pricing is high for the service they deliver, their products are buggy or incomplete in many cases (config tools, etc.) and they're not great with release dates.

    Novell have a good product in SLES, but they're an unknown in the Open Source world - we don't know how they will behave towards the community yet. Dell's recent endorsement may or may not make a difference there.

    Overall, none of the big players are really doing anything interesting enough to bump stock prices at the moment. IBM are about the most visible to the financial corps, and they're doing a little bit of interesting stuff.