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

[Leon Brooks <leon@cyberknights.com.au>]

    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.

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia