A look at the Linux market

According to IDC, the market for pre-installed Linux servers was 4 Billion US-Dollars in 2004, and has been growing 30% per year since steadily. According to IDC, Linux today makes up more than 30% of the server market – one has to keep in mind that Server Hardware sold without an OS at all with the buyer installing the Linux distribution of his choice himself is not included in this survey, so the actual numbers probably are more in the 50% range.

Studies by Netcraft verify this – according to their statistics, over 60% of all servers on the internet run Linux.

The Linux desktop market where Kylix primarily was targeted at is rising too, but at a much slower rate than the Linux server market is – for 2008 IDC however already expects 10 Billion USD in Linux Desktop PC sales (Users are much more likely to use the pre-installed OS that comes with their Desktop PC than with Server hardware), making up about 8% of the OS market.

Quoting from an analysis of the IDC study:

“The IDC study estimates the overall Linux ecosystem will grow 25.9 percent annually to reach $35.7 billion in 2008. Of that, IDC estimates $14 billion will be packaged software, $10 billion PCs and $11 billion servers.

For Linux PCs, market share will likely be lower than average in North and South America and higher in two other regions: Europe, the Middle East and Africa on the one hand and Asia-Pacific countries on the other, IDC forecast. In 2008, Linux PCs are expected to account for less than 4 percent of unit shipments in the Americas and more than 9 percent in the other two regions.”

One has to keep in mind: Back when Kylix was released, the Linux desktop share has only been at 3%. Times are changing.