Linux Climbs the Corporate Ladder
Aug. 27, 2001 -- Linux developers have good reason to celebrate when they honor the 10th birthday of the open-source operating system this month. Even critics must admit the operating system has fundamentally changed the way software is developed and proven the viability of open standards.
But far from just a symbolic, feel-good movement led by geek hobbyists, Linux has taken the tech industry by storm and become a bona fide commercial success.
It is predicted Linux-based hardware, software, services, and staffing will grow to 9 percent of corporate information technology budgets by 2002, up from 3 percent in 1999, according to an upcoming report from research firm IDC.
And it's unlikely Linux will stop there, said IDC Linux study director Scott McLarnon.
"The willingness of an increasing number of decision makers to look closely at Linux bodes well for its future and suggests increasing challenges for competitive platforms," McLarnon said.
In the last five years, a whole industry has grown around Linux to write programs and deliver services based on the licensing-free operating system. Though many Linux firms went belly-up when the tech bubble burst in 2000, many companies, such as Red Hat, Suse and VA Linux, are still chugging along despite the unforgiving economic climate.
Heavy Hitter Acceptance
But what's really driving Linux's impressive growth, analysts said, is its widespread acceptance by tech industry's heavy hitters.
IBM says it will spend more than $1 billion on Linux products and services this year; the company already uses the distinctive Linux penguin mascot in much of its advertising. Furthermore, Linux workstations are available from Compaq and Dell. And the greatest demand for Linux products and services, the companies said, is coming from the most sought-after customers of all — Fortune 500 companies.
Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett-Packard, which also uses Linux in many of its products, even went so far as to hire Linux veteran Bruce Perens as its chief strategist.
"I mean, something has to have very radically changed in the computer industry for that to happen," Perens said of his hiring. "I'm three people from the CEO on the org chart. So they're taking it very seriously."
'Fun' Beginnings
The OS was given life in 1991, when a relatively unknown programmer in Finland named Linus Torvalds decided to write it "because it was fun."
Though Torvalds' Linux kernel — the core piece of software contained in all Linux technologies — was a useful and elegant piece of code, what really caught people's attention was the way the code was distributed and used.
Torvalds made the code available to anyone who wanted it with virtually no strings attached — there were absolutely no licensing fees or limitations on modifying it. The only requirement for using the Linux kernel was that developers share what they did with everyone else.
Said Marty Seyer, CEO of Penguin Computing, "When I saw the approach that was being taken, that's what really excited me."
Linux offered an opportunity to shift power away from operating system and hardware vendors into the hands of customers and application vendors, Seyer said.
Threatening the Incumbents
However, what is revolutionary to Linux adopters is considered threatening by some industry incumbents.
Some of Microsoft's top executives, who have at various times labeled Linux and the open-source movement "un-American" and "a cancer," warned students at NYU earlier this year that open source represents a full-fledged economic danger.
The open-source movement aims "to create this vortex that basically pulls a lot of people's intellectual property in, and essentially makes it so no company can really charge anything," said Craig Mundie, Microsoft's senior vice president of advanced strategies. "That basically undermines the long-term value of intellectual property."
Microsoft, however, probably isn't fearful of Linux loosening its grip on the desktop operating system market anytime soon.
Headway, But Not Home — Yet
Linux has made its greatest headway in the server market, where it now runs on 27 percent of servers globally, compared to Microsoft Windows' 41 percent market share, according to IDC. Besides servers, Linux has been employed in embedded systems, such as the TiVo television recorder and enterprise technologies run by large corporations.
To date, attempts at breaking into the consumer desktop market by Red Hat, Suse, and others have fallen flat. But to Holger Dryoff, Suse's director of sales, it's only a matter of time before Linux ends up on the desktop.
"As soon as we get the first deployments in the business area," Dryoff said, "you and all the other people will want to have the same operating system at home."