05
May
Linux only 10% of US datacenter installs?
I was going to mention this earlier, but when Levanta closed, there was a really interesting quote on CNET: "In the U.S., there’s only a 10 percent penetration rate for Linux data centers."
Really? Only 10%? I mentioned this to Tim Golden, VP of Unix at BofA and their lead on Open Source and he didn’t think it was right either. Other people I know in the financial sector have large amounts of Linux in production and if you look at Google, Intel, Amazon or Oracle, all of which have large datacenters, they also deploy large amounts of Linux.
That said, I guess it’s possible that there is only a 10% penetration of Linux in datacenters, but it seems awfully low given what I know . Then again, I do have a relatively Open Source centric view of things and most people I deal with are relatively Open Source savvy. I do know that the dirty little secret of LinuxCare back in the day was that most of their revenue was coming from Windows support, which they needed to do in order to get the Linux portion of support contracts….
I actually know some VCs who invested in Levanta, perhaps I’ll get the inside scoop on this quote someday.