Some huge numbers coming out of Jupiter Group about the state of Linux on the small and mid-sized businesses. Notably that some 19% of these businesses running Linux on some desktops in there environment. OpenOffice.org got 6%, Linux server install got 26%. All of these numbers (minus the server installs) come from out of nowhere considering Linux on the desktop and OO.org basically didn’t register last year.
To be entirely honest I am not wholly surprised by these numbers. Our organization is switching out almost our entire Windows Server install based because of speed, cost and dependability. For example we currently run a DB2 setup to handle all database operations in our organization. When we got new servers we got them with Windows 2000 (all dual proc boxes.) The boxes cost about $20,000 a piece, DB2 was about $40,000 a piece, and Windows 2000 ES was around $32,000 a piece. On a lark we decided to install Redhat AS 2.1 on one of them (our DB2 license supports any OS we want to install on.) The systems run about 200% faster, had 0 down time, was MUCH easier to support (OpenSSH is GOD!), clustering was much easier with improved scalability, and all on an OS that cost us about $2,500 (support was $2,500; the OS was free.)
Needless to say we only run DB2 on Linux now. In semi-related news Microsoft is urging channel partners not to pick up (higher margin) Linux service channels. Oh ya, OpenOffice 1.1 was released yesterday as well.