Yeah, like the starship Enterprise. In today’s WSJ, my buddy Gary Bloom is quoted more-or-less saying that Linux is going to storm the datacenter and nip Microsoft in the bud. The article says “Big computing shops haven’t yet put a lot of Linux into their holy-of-holies data centers, says Bloom. But that could change next year, when outfits such as Veritas have their entire product lines available on Linux.”
Right. So, Veritas has mostly been unable to sell its suite of products for Windows– which are actually quite good– because a) no one’s heard of them and b) they’re quite expensive. This despite the efforts of folks like my friend Joe Hand, the world’s greatest evangelist. At the same time, they’re going to sell a ton of products in the Linux space, which is a much smaller market space that has a proven resistance to paying actual money for software.
“We bring enterprise credibility to Linux,” said Bloom, “just like we did for Sun.”
Gary, Linux already has enterprise credibility, and it has nothing to do with you (or /., for that matter.) It’s a useful tool for some applications, just like Windows, Mac OS X, and even dinosaur iron.
The other part of the article that I liked was this:
The other development that will quicken the uptake of Linux — and every other tech product — is a loosening of purse strings. Wall Street closely tracks buyers’ budgets, said Bloom, but analysts should instead track how much of those budgets gets spent. Even if budgets for 2003 are flat with 2002, tech vendors could see growth if customers spend more of what they’ve budgeted.
But wait, Linux is free! That’s why it’s going to take over the world from Microsoft, right? It doesn’t cost anything! (Yes, it does, but that’s an argument for another time). If spending increases on Linux, where’s all the money going to go? (Hint: for servers, Red Hat will get the lion’s share). I don’t think that Veritas should expect to see a huge upsurge in their Linux business, although (as a stockholder) I’d love to be proven wrong.
Paul's Down-Home Page 