Oracle Corp’s Oracle 8i on Linux is now generally available, and the port of the internet database looks set for success. The company reports that there have been nearly 20,000 downloads of the software already, resulting in 800 paying customers. Not only is Linux acquiring new enterprise applications every week, those applications seem to be finding acceptance with enterprises themselves. Over half of the orders for Oracle 8i are from enterprise accounts, executives say, with small and medium-sized businesses and organizations accounting for the remainder.
Those numbers will come as no surprise to analysts at Dataquest Inc, a unit of Gartner Group Inc. A new study shows that Linux has won mindshare as a traditional server platform and is poised to have an even greater impact on the emerging market for appliance servers. Dataquest predicts that by 2003, Linux servers will account for approximately 24% of worldwide server appliance revenue, worth an estimated $3.8bn. Linux appliance servers should account for 14% of shipments, or 1.1 million units.
That’s not to say that Microsoft is on the way out, however. Linux will continue to grow as an operating system deployed on new server hardware, but much of the hype surrounding Linux will fade once Microsoft ships and then delivers a service pack for Windows 2000 server, said Dataquest VP and chief analyst Kimball Brown. However in the server appliance market, we believe Linux is becoming a credible and favorite operating system.
Dataquest notes that server appliance vendors are choosing Linux, not only over the costly Windows NT alternative, but ahead of even other no-cost Unix variants like FreeBSD. Not only is Linux free, but the support and continual upgrade off-loads the appliance maker from having to support its own operating system, further cutting costs, Brown explained. Because the operating system is free, the vendor can either offer a lower price… or realize increased margins.
