Dell predicts bright future for Linux operating system
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By Bob Keefe
American-Statesman
Wednesday, August 16, 2000
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Michael Dell isn't about to abandon longtime ally Microsoft Corp.
But as his Dell Computer Corp. continues to expand beyond desktop computers and to more high-power, high-profit products such as Internet servers, it will rely more on the once-obscure but fast-growing Linux software, Dell said Tuesday.
``We see Linux as a significant growth opportunity for Dell,'' he told about 15,000 software designers and others attending the annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Jose.
Dell Computer has invested millions in research and development for Linux-based products, Dell said. Separately, its Dell Ventures subsidiary has pumped millions more into Linux-related companies.
Almost 10 percent of servers sold by Dell Computer use Linux, the free, open-source software that -- like Dell Computer -- has its roots in a college dorm room and grew with the Internet.
Still, the vast majority of Dell machines run on Windows-based software.
Dell declined to give projections on how much of the company's business might eventually come from selling Linux-based equipment, but said Linux's growth is more promising than proprietary server software such as Microsoft's Windows NT and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris.
``In the Internet age, Linux makes far more sense than the proprietary products now offered by some of our competitors,'' he said.
Dell's appearance as the keynote speaker at the fourth LinuxWorld was the first by a major computing executive and in itself provided a major boost to the growing following of Linux.
Other big-name companies also are putting their support behind the system.
Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp. are among those behind a new Linux organization called the Gnome Foundation, whose goal is to create a suite of software applications.
``What we're going to do is get all these companies working together,'' said Miguel de Icaza, founder of the Gnome project.
What all the companies are trying to do is get a piece of the fast-growing market for Linux.
A decade after University of Helsinki at Finland student Linus Torvalds invented the software and released it for free to the world, Linux is the second-most popular server operating system behind Windows, according to researcher International Data Corp. Windows has about 38 percent of the server software market, while Linux has about 24 percent.
Linux is much smaller in the personal desktop computer business, however, capturing only about 4 percent of the market, just behind Macintosh's 5 percent and Windows' 88 percent.
But IDC predicts Linux will replace Macintosh in the No. 2 spot within the next four years and that it will continue to gain ground in the server software business -- something that makes folks such as Dell pay attention.
``It's gone from sort of a secret movement to something much, much bigger,'' Dell said at a news conference after giving Tuesday's speech at LinuxWorld. ``The key difference is that you have much more broad, open support today.''
Linux backers Several big-name companies put their support behind Linux:
• A group including Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp., announced Tuesday they would form the Gnome Foundation to help support, unify and increase the availability of Linux.
• IBM Corp. said it will begin selling computers based on Linux. It also entered an agreement with Linux reseller Red Hat Inc. to collaborate on new software.
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced it was working with Red Hat to develop Linux-related technology for AMD's new `Hammer' family of microprocessors.
• Agenda Computing Inc. introduced a pocket-size portable PC based on Linux at LinuxWorld, breaking the software's stereotype as a system for back-office computing systems.
You may reach Bob Keefe at bkeefe@coxnews.com.
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