Linux star rises in major US firms

More than half of large companies in the US expect to increase the number of internal Linux users by a quarter, while 20 per cent said they plan to add 50 per cent more users.

According to a study of 109 IT professionals by analyst Zona Research, current Linux implementations are overwhelmingly limited to pilot programmes or departmental deployments.

More than half of respondents currently use Linux for services such as email, file and print, internet and intranet connection and firewalls. About 38 per cent use the open-source operating environment as a database server, and 21 per cent use it for ecommerce applications.

Charles King, a senior analyst at Zona, said that much like the behaviour of the early Java market, "Linux is being tested and evaluated, but it has not caused the wholesale replacement of existing applications and operating systems".

He pointed out that although half the respondents indicated their companies would replace existing applications with Linux, another 40 per cent said they had not yet deployed a single copy of Linux.

The study also found that Red Hat is the most popular distributor with more than half of the Linux-using respondents currently implementing its services. Zona said Red Hat's popularity is due to its original equipment manufacturing deals with Hewlett Packard, Compaq and Dell.

Caldera is Red Hat's closest competitor with a nine per cent market share and this figure is expected to grow to 24 per cent in the future, said Zona.