[Linux-aus] Catch me while I faint, Gartner almost said something positive about Linux

[Con Zymaris]

On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 07:58:55AM +0800, Leon Brooks wrote:
> 
>     http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=10&Art_ID=12570
> 
>     A Gartner-commissioned annual Asia Pacific survey of big
>     businesses has found that 52 percent of the 121 Australian
>     companies surveyed -- mostly in verticals such as
>     telecommunications, government, education, finance and
>     banking -- use Linux "somewhere in their organisation", up
>     from 39 percent last year.
> 
>     [...]
> 
>     "Australia [individually] was second only to Taiwan," said
>     Phil Sargeant, research director of storage and services at
>     Gartner. "But I would say, as a generalisation, that while
>     companies have deployed it, it hasn't been in mission-
>     critical work."
> 
>     [...]
> 
>     The results were released to spur interest in an Australia-
>     wide series of Gartner seminars in late August and early
>     September on open source market readiness, Gartner said.
> 
> Call me a skeptic, but I think the final paragraph explains why Gartner 
> should release their first helpful-to-Linux statement in ages (albeit 
> with a few backhanders in it).
> 
> As at now, the conference has *one* Gartner rep who has ever done 
> anything but constantly nay-say and short-sell Linux, and the sole 
> corporate sponsor is Microsoft. It kind of looks like Dorsogna 
> sponsoring a conference on balanced eating, doesn't it?
> 
> I'm also wondering if this is a feedback-related response rather than in 
> any way a genuine attempt at balance.

I wouldn't be too harsh on Gartner. I suspect the reality is that they
have a disparate and diverse range of researchers and skills. My
discussions with a number of them seem to indicate this: some are quite
clued-in, whereas others are shockingly bereft of market intelligence,
which is amazing when you consider that that's their job. I find it ironic
that we, as amateurs, often need to correct invalid assumptions that they
base their analyses on.

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne 03 9621 2377 
Cybersource: Unix/Linux, TCP/IP and Web App. Development  www.cyber.com.au