I don’t believe that this statement is ludicrous. This sentiment is also expressed by Matthew Szulick, CEO of Red Hat, the world’s leading open source and Linux provider.
I even see this first hand. At one time Linux was almost considered a dark little secret. “You can use it in the backroom, but don’t let anyone know that you are using it”. Has now changed to “We use Linux for application A and B!”. It is now becoming somewhat of a technology status symbol. Like the Louis Vuitton of the Handbag industry. OK, maybe that that is pushing the analogy a bit, but you get the idea.
Below are a few stats from the article, which seem to validate the actions that we see Microsoft taking within the last few weeks.
“In servers, global market research firm IDC predicts Linux’ market share based on unit sales will rise from 24 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2007, compared with 59 percent for Windows.
On the desktop side, IDC sees Linux’ share more than doubling, from 3 percent in 2005 to 6 percent in 2007 while Windows loses a bit of ground.”
I am sure that if we saw declining numbers in Linux, there would not be a single “Partner” deal occurring. Remember its just business.
