Linux and China to drive IT in 2002

Linux will have a break-out year in 2002 and China will contribute handsomely to tech firms coffers, according to the latest set of predictions from research firm IDC.

Speaking during at a teleconference late yesterday the firm's chief research officer, John Gantz, predicted a modest boost to the tech sectors struggling financials alongside a range of predictions for 2002.

The news was actually pretty good. Aside from the top 10 predictions, Gantz expects that the tech sector will grow by approximately six per cent in the US, a rise of two per cent over last year. In western Europe, it will grow by seven per cent, a rise of one per cent, and by 12 per cent in Asia Pacific, a rise of two per cent.

This is a definite boost for the sector and we can, apparently, expect it to kick in before the middle of the year.

Linux was perhaps the most interesting of the points mentioned by the man in the know. Having experienced a year when things could have gone either up or down for Linux, now, says IDC, it seems that the operating system is definitely a viable option for firms.

Gantz suggested that this year could be Linux's finest yet as more and more organisations seek to incorporate it into their infrastructure plans.

Linux is apparently continuing to have a great deal of success in China which, as a nation, looks set to prove a considerable boon to the tech sector.

IDC said that an awful lot of new systems in China are running Linux. Further to this, it is expected that China's recent admission to the World Trade Organisation will boost its expenditure on technology, possibly taking it up by 25 per cent, said IDC.

None of this means that Microsoft will flounder, however. IDC believes it will shift some 75 million licences this year. Although, it notes, it's unlikely that this will drive hardware expenditure as it has in the past.

Alongside these predictions for the year IDC also claimed that web services, the sort that everybody is talking about, will peak this year, and that authentication systems, driven by Sun and Microsoft, will achieve respectability amongst the masses.

See also:

China's hi-tech companies love Britain

Hong Kong connection makes Britain ideal, says Invest UK  04 Feb 2002

Police find Linux arresting

Open source OS could appear on 60,000 desktops  22 Jan 2002

Desktop Linux still remote

Operating system is still no threat to Microsoft.  16 Jan 2002

Red Hat touts Linux 7.2 for 64-bit Itanium

OS will now support very high memory addressing  10 Jan 2002

Linux: technology fit for the enterprise

This most maverick of operating systems has found itself a place in some corporate setups. But in general, the feeling is that Linux has a lot to prove.  03 Oct 2001

Proof Linux can replace Windows 2000?

Case study claims Linux offers huge financial savings  21 Sep 2001

Linux gets busy as the industry slows

Linux stands to gain from the IT industry slowdown, says IBM's Linux strategy chief Deepak Advani.  23 Mar 2001

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