Linux Is Ready

In a finding that will surprise many suppliers of traditional telephony gear and services, a research firm has concluded that open-source systems make up nearly one-fifth of all sales of enterprise PBXs.

“We conclude that in 2008, 2.86 million open source PBX end points were installed,” wrote John Malone, CEO of telecom consultancy Eastern Management Group in an article summarizing the report findings on No Jitter. “The total market was 15.88 million lines, giving Open Source PBXs an 18% share.”

Entitled “The Market for Open Source PBXs,” the study is based on three surveys: one of 6,734 IT executives, one of open-source PBX vendors, and the third of 100 telecom resellers.

“A market shift is underway, and has been since Open Source PBXs arrived,” the report concluded. “Traditional telephone system manufacturers are now, largely unknowingly, competing for a bigger share of a shrinking market.”

Open source software in government was the topic on the Linux blogs this week, particularly President Obama’s request that Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy prepare a paper on how the U.S. government can use open source technologies.

With the new year under way and all of the problems in the old year still largely unsolved, people in the IT sector are looking around for a little good news and some prospects for growth. There are a lot of clouds out there right now, and Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, thinks the rain is going to be good, particularly for Linux.

“Even though 2008 was in recession, the Linux platform did well, and it is growing faster than other platforms,” Zemlin told us during an interview.

“Linux definitely has critical mass, and you use Linux ten times a day and you don’t even know it. So in 2009, we expect to see a bit of growth. It is not going to be a boom year for anybody, but at the end of the day, Linux is positioned to do well.”

Read more…

With the new year under way and all of the problems in the old year still largely unsolved, people in the IT sector are looking around for a little good news and some prospects for growth. There are a lot of clouds out there right now, and Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, thinks the rain is going to be good, particularly for Linux.

“Even though 2008 was in recession, the Linux platform did well, and it is growing faster than other platforms,” Zemlin told us during an interview.

“Linux definitely has critical mass, and you use Linux ten times a day and you don’t even know it. So in 2009, we expect to see a bit of growth. It is not going to be a boom year for anybody, but at the end of the day, Linux is positioned to do well.”

Read more…