Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

~50% of Compaq Server Customers Using Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the good-news-for-linux dept.

newt writes "The Australian's Technology section is carrying a story from Compaq which claims that 50% of Compaq server customers are using Linux. As a result of increasing use, Compaq is beefing up its Linux support infrastructure and unveiling new Linux service offerings similar to the support offered for "mainstream" operating systems. "

5 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmm by mochaone · · Score: 4

    The timing of this announcement disturbs me.

    On friday, MS is ruled a monopoly and the Judge asserts that MS has no competition in the PC market.

    On monday, Compaq releases a statement indicating that Linux accounts for 50% of its server setup.

    Compaq is MS' biggest corporate customer. MS uses Compaq computers in its corporate systems.

    Does something sound fishy here?

    --
    Hates people who have stupid little sigs
  2. *NOT* 50% of servers run Linux by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 5

    Note that the story does *not* say that 50% of servers delivered by Compaq have Linux installed. It simply says that 50% of the organizations that buy a server from Compaq have at least one Linux box.

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
  3. Good guys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    I worked at Compaq for the summer. I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the head guys in the Linux Division. There are some pretty sharp guys there, and they've been pushing really hard to get Compaq to support Linux.

    Even while I was working there I stripped Windows off the box I was working on and installed Linux to do all my work. I loaded VMWare every once in a while to work with Access, but other than that it was Linux. Even within Compaq they've been very supportive of Linux.

    I'm sure that they will begin to encourage the use of Linux now, and probably have a tech support setup. Sounds good to me!

  4. I've said it before... by Amphigory · · Score: 3
    And I'll say it again.
    Market share is irrelevant in anti-trust cases!
    What matters is if the company is able to exercise a strong influence on the market, and the what they do with that influence. So, Microsoft, while they are not the /only/ vendor of PC operatings systems, does exercies monopoly power due to the high price of entry into the market. That has been documented in nauseating (but wonderfully well written) detail by Judge Jackson. (I want his child, by the way).

    The point is that Microsoft /used/ their monopoly power in an area (operating systems) to prevent people from entering other markets. Specifically, web browsers.

    The only way in which market share is relevant is that you usually have to have a lot of it to have monopoly power. There have been successful cases with as little as 45%.

    Please guys: remember this, and repeat it. There is a lot of nonsense still going around that "MS ISn't a monopoly, look at linux!" They are a monopoly, notwithstanding that Linux is going to kick their little hButts, and at the bare minimum they deserve a massive (say $10billion) fine.

    --
    -- Slashdot sucks.
  5. FoF refers to the Desktop. by torpor · · Score: 3

    One thing that is definitely not really made clear in this FoF/MS/Linux broo-haha is the fact that Linux is cutting into MS' *SERVER* market, not its desktop market.

    And this lawsuit is really about MS' desktop operating system - Windows 95/98.

    So on that basis, what Jackson has said is that Linux can't compete with Windows 95/98, and its true - right now, Linux is not a desktop operating system that Ma Apple Pie is gonna install.

    But on the backside of this, when you are comparing *SERVER* products, Linux is a match for NT, for sure...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --