Around 10% of Japanese companies will be using free Unix, such as Linux and FreeBSD, by early next year according to a survey which showed 6.7% of firms were using it as of last March. Many more small firms than big firms use the free versions, the survey showed. The survey, by Nikkei Computer, said more companies were positive than negative with 42% saying that being free from strategies of specific makers was a key factor for them, while 38.5% cited being able to suppress costs of system development. About 30% of the companies surveyed gave high marks to reliability of free Unix.
