Published at LXer:

So you think companies sell $1bn in Linux support contracts a year worldwide? Think again. That isn't going to happen until 2012, and maybe not at all if the trends of using commercial distros without paying for support continue apace. Al Gillen, the operating systems and virtualization analyst at IDC, wrapped up his worldwide Linux operating environment forecast, which spans from 2009 through 2013, just before ducking out on holiday. And according to that report (which you can get here if you feel like shelling out $4,500), the for-fee global revenues for Linux operating system support, which is mostly for servers, rose by 23.4 per cent in 2008 to hit $567m.

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