Writes ZDNet: “Open source tools are becoming more common in large businesses, but analysts say that a perceived lack of service and support options could hold back growth.”
I think what the Linux community needs to do is to build an ecosystem of companies to rival that which Microsoft has created. This needs to go right from companies (or individuals) that can install and support the software, to independent software vendors who can build applications, to the availability of mainstream applications on Linux, and training for end-users and system admins.
The game is now no longer about technology – yes, Linux cannot run every Windows applications written. It is about first getting Linux into the door into companies, and that can only happen when there is awareness that Linux is fully supported by multiple vendors – not just the IBMs of the world, but also the smaller companies.
Linux needs champions in every georgraphical zone and every vertical around whom others can coalesce. Linux needs to build its set of complementers, the way Intel and Microsoft did in the 1980s and 1990s.
