Latest findings by Gartner Asia-Pacific revealed that 15 percent of companies in the region (excluding Japan) used Linux in the fourth quarter of last year. The market research firm polled a total of 850 organizations for its Asia-Pacific: Server and Storage User Wants and Needs Q4, 2001 report.
Comparatively, the adoption rate was between 5 percent and 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000, Phil Sargeant, Gartner Asia-Pacific research director for Servers and Storage said.
"More than half of those surveyed indicated that cost was the major reason for installing Linux," Sargeant said.
"In addition, Linux tends to eat more into Windows' market share than any other operating system such as Netware and Unix," he noted, explaining that the trend could be due to a backlash against Microsoft's new software licensing scheme.
To be introduced on 31 July, the software giant's latest fee structure commits customers to buying upgrades of its operating system and applications for an annual sum. This, according to analysts, will raise the costs of software for smaller companies as they tend to upgrade the least frequently of all.
Despite increasing competition, Windows NT and 2000 server operating systems were the "most widely used" among Asian companies in the fourth quarter of 2001, Gartner said, without providing specifics.
The report also revealed that Thailand and Korea led the region in Linux installation, where over a quarter of organizations in both countries use the operating system. In addition, strong Linux adoption was seen in India and Hong Kong -- with 24 percent and 21 percent usage among companies, respectively.
Although only 8 percent of businesses in China own Linux servers, its adoption is expected to "grow rapidly." This is due to the Chinese government's plans to develop its domestic software industry, said Matthew Boon, Gartner Asia-Pacific principal analyst for Hardware Platforms.
For starters, the Beijing government had last month awarded contracts to several homegrown firms -- including Red Flag Linux -- for their Linux operating system and office productivity software offerings.
However, server sales in China may not correspond with the growing Linux market.
According to the same report, 80 percent of companies surveyed in the mainland said "no" to major server acquisition programs in the next 12 months. Similar responses were gathered from companies across the region, especially in Korea and New Zealand.
Sargeant, attributed the expected sluggish server sales to "under-utilisation" of existing investments.
"The phenomenal, but unsustainable increase in storage shipments over recent years have led to over-adoptance," Sargeant said. "Storage vendors will face tough market conditions this year (in Asia-Pacific)."
