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

By: Dennis Byron

Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system (OS); thus, most web hosting companies cater to sites running on Windows, as expected. However, there is an increasing demand for hosts that can support websites running on other platforms such as Mac OS and Linux, just to name a few. For this article, we will focus on Linux web hosting.

Why do some people choose Linux web hosting? To start with, Linux is an open source OS designed after Unix. It means Linux is free, which is a fact that is easily a factor in some people’s choice of operating system. Aside from being free, Linux is also known to be very stable even in the midst of some heavy-duty multitasking. It’s also known to be flexible, powerful, and portable. The graphical user interface (GUI) looks great, too.

Whatever the reason may be, there’s no denying that more and more people are turning to Linux web hosting. If you’re comfortable with using Linux with Perl programming language, now is the right time to go for Linux web hosting. It has its place in mainstream, so any worries you may have about lack of suitable choices for Linux web hosting should be thrown out the window. There are a lot of affordable packages being marketed by web hosting companies for the Linux user.

Surprisingly, even if Windows is the most popular OS, Linux web hosting has more presence on the internet than Windows web hosting. The reason behind this is Linux’s open source nature. A lot of technological developments in web hosting are also open source. It’s easier for developers and programmers to experiment with different innovations when high fees and licenses are not part of the equation. Thus, Linux web hosting provides you with a lot of flexibility at almost no cost. When technologies update, you can go along with them without worrying about your budget because they are free.

Linux web hosting is also highly standardized because Linux, as an OS, is a standard platform. Thus, you can easily add to your website without too much hassle since everything is streamlined. You’ll appreciate this more as your website steadily and quickly grows. Long-term management with diligent maintenance is one of the most difficult things you need to do as a webmaster; luckily Linux web hosting can help in that aspect.

Take note, though, that there’s a downside to all the good stuff, and it’s up to you if it’s worth looking over when you finally choose Linux web hosting. Since Windows still dominates as the number one OS, Linux web hosting does not have a lot of technical support available for applications and languages that are based on Windows. Sure, you have a wide range of Linux-based applications and languages to choose from, but there are very useful ones that are Windows-based. You either don’t use them at all, or prepare yourself to encounter difficulties when you do.

Weigh your needs and wants before choosing Linux web hosting over Windows web hosting. Both have positive and negative aspects to them, and choosing what works better for your website is something only you can decide.

By: Charles Yarbrough

In my previous articles in this series (Part One & Two on How To Build A Web Site both available here at EzineArticles.com) I began to outline just what is needed for the “real” web-site to succeed. In this article we are going to discuss the first important decision that you will have to make and which most people do not understand the far-reaching consequences that can affect and effect your web site way down the line as you get more sophisticated.

In the previous article Part Two of the How to Build Your Own Web Site series the first challenge we mentioned in our “Cookbook” was:

1. Web Server – Two choices here: Linux or Windows (and it does make a difference) And what else will my provider offer me?

Okay, so the first thing you may want to do to get an answer to this is to ask a few friends who are “techies”. Before you do that get ready with some suitable body armor and make sure you can handle people frothing at the mouth and getting very excited about such a subject. You may find that some people will tell you:

“You are nuts to use a Linux Server. They are decent servers and fast that is true, but they require an incredible amount of attention and a System Administrator at the web hosting site that lives, breathes, eats and drinks Unix, Linux, RedHat etc. .”

And the others will tell you:

“Hah! Windows as a web server? Are you crazy? Open to attack. Vulnerable. Slow. Horrible to deal with. Crashes. Dll’s all over the place that simply just crash. Microsoft? Keep them for Office. Big Boys use Linux!”

Okay, so now you are really confused. So let us get a few facts out there.

Both types of servers are vulnerable to attacks. Period. Both types of servers need professional maintenance from trained professionals. Both types of servers have been known to crash.

These are NOT the points you need to consider. What you do need to consider is the following:

Are you going to use a pure HTML site (all .htm pages) and are you going to use FrontPage or the equivalent to build it? In this case go with a Windows server. Are you going to use ASP technology? – Must have Windows server. Are you going to use Php? – You can use either Linux or Windows. However if you use Windows you must make sure you service provider supports PHP. Only they can answer that. Most people who use PHP use Linux servers and control access with the FTP changemod commands and a file called .htaccess. However, you can still use a Windows server with PHP and very effectively, I might add. Are you going to need to need MYSQL Database? Database generation is sophisticated, but sometimes needed and often very important. Here I will make one clear point. Do not use Access for Web servers. It is slow, it is not made for large databases and it is very difficult to maintain on a web site. If you insist on using Access, then make sure you have a Windows server to support it. Don’t forget to make sure that your web provider supports Mysql and gives you the ability to deal with your tables directly.

Still all mysterious for you?

Think ahead a bit. In actual terms you do not need to know nor should you care what server is being used as long as you have ftp access to your site and you can directly update it. However, if you are even an emerging “techie” then taking into account:

Database PHP ASP HTML FTP access

are all critical.

In truth the majority of web servers are not Windows servers. However, do not be fooled by that comparison. Remember, the Unix, Linux, RedHat variations are either totally FREE or very cheaply priced for the Web Farm compared to their purchase of a Windows Server License. That is one MAJOR reason that the Linux servers are out there and so popular.

So when you want to look for a web provider (”Server-Farm”) on the net you will usually see that they offer either Windows Plans or Linux Plans. Consider what you think you will need in the future. Database? PHP? ASP? HTML?

In the next article we will discuss exactly what you should demand from your web provider (the Server-Farm) as part of the package.

By: Ted Gross