Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Some surprising finds about Linux selection criteria, desktop presence and barriers

February 11, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Some surprising finds about Linux selection criteria, desktop presence and barriers

TAGS: Platforms

In January and early February, InfoWorld conducted a survey about Linux usage and expectations.

Reliability, security and performance -- in that order-- are the three top criteria points that customers consider when opting for Linux, with cost being the fourth most important criteria.

As part of the study, we determined vendor ranking across all four criteria. IBM and Sun dominated the top 3 categories.

I listed the rankings below. The numbers indicate the percentage of respondents who elected a particular vendor in each category.

Reliability:
IBM -- 42%
Sun -- 20%
Dell -- 17%
HP --15%
Oracle -- 5%
NEC -- 1%
EDS -- 0%

Security:
IBM -- 47%
Sun -- 29%
HP -- 9%
Dell -- 6%
Oracle -- 6%
EDS -- 2%
NEC -- 0%

Performance:
IBM -- 36%
Sun -- 31%
HP -- 15%
Dell -- 13%
Oracle -- 5%
EDS -- 1%
NEC -- 0%

Another category the study looked at was cost, for which Dell dominated the pack:

Dell -- 57%
IBM -- 18%
HP -- 13%
Sun -- 10%
Oracle -- 2%
NEC -- 0%
EDS -- 0%

I won't break out lists of the remaining 6 criteria categories that vendors were ranked in, but they include being in the best position to deliver: flexibility, technical support, upgradeability, alignment with internal strategies, integration, and breadth.

Perhaps the biggest surprise that this survey uncovered is that 49 percent of respondents who use Linux in their networks already have the open source operating system on PCs, and 24 percent plan to install it on desktops this year. Meanwhile, 65 percent of the organizations planning to install Linux this year indicated intentions to put it on PCs, among other places.

As the barriers for adopting Linux, respondents listed a need to use products that don't support Linux, lack of application availability, and not enough qualified in-ternal support resources.

The study, Linux and the Brands that Deliver, was conducted by InfoWorld with Chadwick Martin Bailey. Nearly 500 respondents, mostly comprised of IT decision makers including CTOs, IT managers and IT consultants, completed the survey. Respondents reflect a small- to medium-sized business (SMB) focus, with more than 50 percent of the respondents working at companies with less than 500 employees.

And, of course, no vendor contributed any money to field this research.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on February 11, 2005 09:25 AM

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