UNIX/Linux Enterprise Software Ecosystem to Grow as Fast as Windows’

The Linux Foundation announced April 8 its annual sponsorship of independent IDC predictions about how the Linux ecosystem will grow over time. The answer is “a lot” but exactly what you’d expect in relationship to the UNIX ecosystem. 

I usually measure Linux/UNIX usage growth/decline by following the IDC quarterly view of server shipments. The clear trend from that perspective is that factory shipments of servers with Linux is increasing basically at the rate that factory shipments of servers with UNIX decreases. It gets the rabid open source blogosphere foaming at the mouth to say this but Linux is basically the latest version of UNIX. So market researchers expect the two operating systems to move in this manner. 

From a market research perspective, looking at the Linux ecosystem separate from the UNIX ecosystem would be like looking at the growth of Windows 15 years ago without also watching the decline of DOS. Bascially,  you choose the IBM and HP versions of Linux et al for factory shipments if you used to choose AIX, HP/UX and so forth. In addition, leading server suppliers are partnering with Linux services suppliers such as Red Hat, Canonical and so forth for follow-ons. This is relatively low-margin services business the major systems suppliers used to take for themselves. 

The IDC report released April 8 looks at the same trend from a different perspective. By the way and not coincidentally, the Linux Foundation is funded by platinum sponsors Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC, Novell and Oracle along with dozens of other Gold, Silver and Affiliate sponsors. Rather than measuring your choice of servers, the new IDC research predicts your “Linux-related software spending.” The forecast says Linux-related software revenue will grow from $12 billion to $35 billion between 2008 and 2013 while “Unix spending” goes almost almost flat (from $69 billion to $74 billion). This statistic forecasts not only the Linux- and other open source operating software (e.g., Solaris) revenue flowing in the market but the revenue of license fees, maintenance and related subscriptions for application servers, ESBs, databases, ERP, BI and even consumer software running on those operating systems. Note that much of this software is not tied to open source terms and conditions (Ts&Cs). As an example, an Oracle database and SAP R/3 running on a Linux server would be considered Linux-related software spending in this case. 

The IDC report also has some interesting information about cloud computing, virtualization and the effects on the market of the current economic downturn. It is available free from the Linux Foundation Web site. I wrote about a companion piece of IDC research sponsored by Novell here. 

By comparison, “Windows-related” revenue, according to the same IDC white paper, will grow from $149 billion to $206 billion during the same period. That is, both ecosystems are growing at about the same compound annual growth rate of 6 percent to 7 percent. That’s also as one would expect because both ecosystems are rapidly becoming the two dominant choices you have in the marketplace. As has been the trend for a few years, Linux- and other open source-based software is replacing UNIX-system-based software while Windows-based software is displacing OS/400 and other similar less IT-personnel-intensive systems. 

As always, be careful of statistics. These statistics do not tell the whole story of the marketplace and your choices in it. For example, just as a lot of the software in the open source operating system ecosystem is deployed with traditional Ts&Cs (the Oracle/SAP example above), a lot of the software revenue measured in the Windows ecosystem is distributed with open source Ts&Cs. Examples are JBoss or MySQL running on Windows

Unix/Linux and Windows Hosting

At last you are totally willing to start up a web project and you’re looking for an suitable hosting provider amidst tons of available services and tariff schedules. In such a manner you should take note of that the the major part of hosting providers apply Linux or Unix OSs on the web servers. Microsoft Windows operating system is suggested rarely as a preference. Thus, what is the discrepancy?
The major part users know Microsoft Windows since it is generally used for home editions, by companies and at school. It is really uncomplicated in usage for newcomers and doesn’t ask for any experience of the console commands. At such OS such as Windows Home and sophisticated Server variations you have to just open the needed folder simply pointing with the cursor and clicking with the mouse. Unix and Linux are systems which have open initial code (so called “open-source” code). This denotes that they’re chargeless, and source codes are properly listed and simply developed. There’re no essential diversities between Unix and Linux. Unix is much older and is not compatible with personal computers x86. Conversely, Linux is able to work on both high-power servers and on usual x86 computers.

Linux is brought in the big variety of functions of add-ons Nevertheless major part of the hosting providers make a choice for Red Hat Linux or Mandrake Linux that testified their rights to be real “willing horses” and are in power to control a great number of sites and millions hits per day. Unix made plenty of well-known now modifications known as FreeBSD and OpenBSD, they are largely accessible.
While simplicity in usage is extremely  substantial for a home or working PC, its absence pure and simple doesn’t pose a big issue for a web server. Eventually, you do much of of the design on your working computer. Certainly, if you don’t use any exotic programming systems, operation modules, you won’t experience any discrepancy between Windows and Unix servers.

Both Linux/Unix and Windows server is able to support easily highly-visited sites and manifold supplements such as chat-rooms, email and web statistics. The most important difference is in the cost and software compatibility. As it is necessary to get and renew the Windows patent constantly, Windows-hosting packages are generally more expensive than Unix packages. Moreover service schedules on the Unix basis frequently give free statistics, email, scripts, databases (MySQL). Whereas Windows tariff schedules work with Microsoft software (for example, MS SQL) that is affordable for cash for the hosting-provider either.

Both Linux and Windows can fulfill the programs on popular of web programming languages such as php, perl, or java. In case if your site explores active server pages then it will host on Windows-server more trouble-proof. Surely, it can operate on a Unix-server too, but there can be small technical errors that on the first stage of working are not evident. Once more, if you use Microsoft SQL databases, these bases will be supported as a part of Windows-packages of hosting. In a compromise to it, Linux or Unix packages often come with MySQL in the structure of database. This denotes that your bases will need conversion into this format for normal operation. If at present you use any of Microsoft programming platforms (particularly active server pages) or its secondary products (MS SQL 2000), you ought to choose Windows hosting platform. For the average web designer there will be no large difference between Linux/Unix or Windows web hosting. However, before you order a web hosting, make sure if all component parts of your site – the design, programming, databases and all the rest – will work on this package. If have some challenge, seek suggestion from the hosting company sales department or technical support before making a purchase.