Paula Rooney of ZDNet has some bad news for those promoting Linux. According to a Gartner report, Linux’s cost advantages are soon to dissipate and software as a service will soon eclipse Linux as “the preferred IT cost-cutting method” (by 2013).

If true, in both cases Linux and open source win. What’s not to love?

In the first instance, open source long ago ceased to be dependent on winning through cheapness. Yes, many CIOs still look to open source to deliver cost savings, but people aren’t switching to Novell and Red Hat to save a buck, just as few (if any) have outright dumped Red Hat’s for Oracle’s discount Unbreakable Linux.

It’s not about a price tag. It’s about value, as Red Hat’s Michael Tiemann emphatically said at OSCON a few years back.

If Linux’s TCO goes up relative to its proprietary competition, so has its value. Perhaps Gartner is simply predicting that Linux vendors will finally get paid their due?

This isn’t exactly how Gartner sees it:

… Source:The Open Road

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 12:11 am and is filed under Business and Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.