This is now changing, thanks to Web apps, which have helped reduced the importance of OS on user devices. He noted that few users would have wanted Linux on the front-end in the past. Nonetheless, Chan said Linux is making a slow break into the desktop space. This helped Microsoft overtake Linux's headstart in the netbook space. The low-powered devices were not capable of running Vista, forcing Microsoft to extend XP's life for the netbook category. In March 2008, Microsoft backtracked on its strategy to retire the aging Windows XP and reinstate the OS for netbooks to counter the rising Linux threat.
"Each year, desktop Linux shows a nominal growth but the wear and tear is beginning to show on Microsoft's strategy," he said, pointing to how the software giant had reacted to Linux encroaching on its market in the netbook space. This is contrasted with European adoptions of open source, which are "often philosophical", he said.Įnterprise buzz around open source is also slowly spreading beyond server OSes, where it has mostly been over the past years, and into client-based computing, Chan said, noting that the latter remains "the great hope" for Linux. Trifkovic added that Asia has turned to open source for the "pragmatic" reasons around cost savings. "Customers that deploy Linux tend to have high confidence levels in Linux, and their experience in Linux has only served to raise their comfort level with the quality of Linux code," he said. Of this, companies are also running Linux without paying a vendor for support and more are likely to do so. He added that CIOs in Asia are turning to Linux to run critical portions of their business.
These initiatives have led to performance improvements, giving companies less reason not to deploy open platforms in an hypervisor environment for fear of the lack of interoperability, said Chan. There has been a move to cross-test and certify hypervisors across proprietary and open OSes. Interoperability has also made great strides in the past year, the analyst said. But cloud infrastructure players supporting Linux has been a great vote of confidence for open source and that, combined with matured technical specifications for open source projects, have allowed the open source ecosystem to come together and present a compelling choice for CIOs, he noted. IDC Asia-Pacific's chief technology advisor, Patrick Chan, said the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing a "definite" move toward the cloud, albeit at a slower pace than expected.Ĭompanies have not been rushing in because open source deployments did not scale as well in its earlier years, Chan told ZDNet Asia.
Trifkovic said: "Google itself probably wouldn't exist without Linux because it allowed the company to grow and experiment."
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