Linux faces a bleak future. In fact there may be no future at all for Linux b
ecause Linux is dying. Things are looking very bad for Linux. As many of us are
already aware, Linux continues to lose market share; red ink flows like a river
of blood. Slackware Linux is perhaps the most in endangered. Let's look at the n
umbers.
MandrakeSoft's CEO Henri Poole states that there are 70000 users of Linux-Man
drake. How many users of Debian GNU/Linux are there? Let's see. The number of Li
nux-Mandrake versus GNU/Linux posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. The
refore there are about 70000/5 = 14000 GNU/Linux users. Slackware posts on Usene
t are about half of the volume of GNU/Linux posts. Therefore there are about 700
0 users of Slackware. A recent article put RedHat Linux at about 80 percent of t
he
Linux market. Therefore there are (70000+14000+7000)*4 = 364000 RedHat Linux use
rs. This is consistent with the number of RedHat Linux Usenet posts.
Now Linux companies are consolidating, overhauling their business plans,
laying off staff, scaling back expansion plans and pushing back
profitability schedules. "It would seem there are too many distributions
for the market to bear," said Gartner analyst Tom Henkel.
(http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,269 5638,00.html)
Red Hat, Inc., the leader in developing deploying and managing open
source linux solutions, announced on a reported basis, a net loss of
$24.2 million.
(http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-0 3-22-010-20-PS)
Turbolinux, based in Brisbane, Calif., a Linux-based software provider has
withdrawn a $60 million initial public offering "in light of current
market conditions."
(http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010320/n20215287_2.html)
(http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/20/deals/ipo/)
Clayton-based Linuxgruven.com, a Linux training and service company with
106 employees, laid off 100 employees
(http://stlouis.bcentral.com/stlouis/stories/2001/ 03/05/daily41.html)
Lineo withdrew its initial public offering in January. Caldera Systems
delayed the acquisition of Santa Cruz Operations' Unix software by a
quarter. Linuxcare laid off dozens in February, with Linuxcare
co-founders Dave Sifry and Dave LaDuke are among those departing.
VA Linux Systems cut 114 people in February and delayed its expected
profitability by nine months.
(http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,269 5638,00.html)
Due to the troubles of Corel, abysmal sales and so on, Corel Linux is
going out of business and was nearly taken over by Microsoft who sell
another troubled OS. Owing to the GPL, SuSE is laying off almost all of
its US staff. Major marketing surveys show that Linux has steadily
declined in market share. Even LinuxWorld.com shut down "because of the
economy and everything else"
(http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/03/13/ 1720254&mode=nocomment)
Linux is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If
Linux is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyists (i.e. those who
dabble with Minix, Xinu, etc). Linux continues to falter. Nothing short
of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical
purposes, Linux is dead.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux faces a bleak future. In fact there may be no future at all for Linux b ecause Linux is dying. Things are looking very bad for Linux. As many of us are already aware, Linux continues to lose market share; red ink flows like a river of blood. Slackware Linux is perhaps the most in endangered. Let's look at the n umbers.
MandrakeSoft's CEO Henri Poole states that there are 70000 users of Linux-Man drake. How many users of Debian GNU/Linux are there? Let's see. The number of Li nux-Mandrake versus GNU/Linux posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. The refore there are about 70000/5 = 14000 GNU/Linux users. Slackware posts on Usene t are about half of the volume of GNU/Linux posts. Therefore there are about 700 0 users of Slackware. A recent article put RedHat Linux at about 80 percent of t he Linux market. Therefore there are (70000+14000+7000)*4 = 364000 RedHat Linux use rs. This is consistent with the number of RedHat Linux Usenet posts.
Now Linux companies are consolidating, overhauling their business plans, laying off staff, scaling back expansion plans and pushing back profitability schedules. "It would seem there are too many distributions for the market to bear," said Gartner analyst Tom Henkel. (http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,269 5638,00.html)
Red Hat, Inc., the leader in developing deploying and managing open source linux solutions, announced on a reported basis, a net loss of $24.2 million. (http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-0 3-22-010-20-PS)
Turbolinux, based in Brisbane, Calif., a Linux-based software provider has withdrawn a $60 million initial public offering "in light of current market conditions." (http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010320/n20215287_2.html) (http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/20/deals/ipo/)
Clayton-based Linuxgruven.com, a Linux training and service company with 106 employees, laid off 100 employees (http://stlouis.bcentral.com/stlouis/stories/2001/ 03/05/daily41.html)
Lineo withdrew its initial public offering in January. Caldera Systems delayed the acquisition of Santa Cruz Operations' Unix software by a quarter. Linuxcare laid off dozens in February, with Linuxcare co-founders Dave Sifry and Dave LaDuke are among those departing. VA Linux Systems cut 114 people in February and delayed its expected profitability by nine months. (http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,269 5638,00.html)
Due to the troubles of Corel, abysmal sales and so on, Corel Linux is going out of business and was nearly taken over by Microsoft who sell another troubled OS. Owing to the GPL, SuSE is laying off almost all of its US staff. Major marketing surveys show that Linux has steadily declined in market share. Even LinuxWorld.com shut down "because of the economy and everything else" (http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/03/13/ 1720254&mode=nocomment)
Linux is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Linux is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyists (i.e. those who dabble with Minix, Xinu, etc). Linux continues to falter. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Linux is dead.
I hope your dictionary contains an entry for "humour"