Linux takes a quarter of the OS market

Linux has overtaken rivals Unix and Netware and is snapping at the heels of Windows NT.

Linux accounted for one in four server operating systems last year, according to preliminary data from analyst IDC. Its figures show 1.35 million of the 5.4 million operating systems shipped worldwide in 1999 were Linux - an increase of 16 per cent on the previous year.

NT still easily leads the market with a stable 38 per cent of sales. Novell's Netware fell from 23 per cent to 19 per cent, and Unix slipped from 19 per cent to 15 per cent.

Shipment figures do not give an accurate figure of people actually using a particular operating system, however, since one copy can be deployed on a network serving any number of users.

"Although an operating system that supports two users counts the same as one that supports a thousand users, the growth in shipments of the Linux OS has been dramatic," said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky.

Fellow IDC analyst Al Gillen said the trend is bad news for Netware. "Novell is losing market share, which is not a good long-term trend for any company."

Novell is not in a "death spiral", although "the lion's share of the new market opportunities were absorbed by Linux", he added.

Despite Linux's growth, sales per server of the operating system accounted for just $32m in 1999, less than one per cent of the $5.7bn server market, whereas NT amassed $1.7bn.

"Linux revenues are a different story," said Kusnetzky. "They are non-existent. The Linux story is about the operating system being free and packaged for convenience. The business model means that software is a loss leader. The vendors make money from using it to sell products and services such as hardware, training and support."