Saturday, April 15, 2006

Chinese Linux Growing and Microsoft might be adding water!

According to an article I read today, at VUNET, China's Linux market will be generating more than $51m annually by 2010, up from just $11.8m last year. Well it is no wonder that Linux is replacing the top spots from SCO, a unix solutions provider that was prominent in Chinese Banking arena.
According to the report major business are replacing SCO's Open server and other platforms with Linux. Linux has been growing wild ;) in China for a while now, but it is good to see that market researchers beginning to see that too. I had my first Chinese Linux distribution, about two years ago from REDFLAG Linux.
The other interesting development is that Microsoft fought hard to implement a new law requiring, manufactured PC to be shipped with a licensed version of operating system. Yes the law passed and it does not say that PC's has to ship with Windows! And Linux is licensed, under GNU!!
I guess there will be many a PC's shipping with likes of RedFlag and Asianux operating systems. So the predicted Linux market even might surpass the estimates. As Chinese government has also spending a quite a lot on broadband and fiber, there might be Grids and Grid solutions that will be used in the near future. The Chinese Universities are in the forefront of Grid technology usage.
All in all free market model seems to be working even though M$ is still commanding billions and Linux in millions. But those little millions will eventually add up.

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