Recently, IDC estimated the total value of the Linux ecosystem (hardware, software, services) to be $25 billion. That's a great number, but it doesn't really say anything about what Linux should be worth to you and your organization.
The Linux Foundation has set out to fill that void by estimating the the value of Linux research and development (R&D). For those too impatient to read the report, here's a spoiler:
$10.8 billion.
The total development cost represented in a typical Linux distribution was $1.2 billion. We've used his tools and method to update these findings. Using the same tools, we estimate that it would take approximately $10.8 billion to build the Fedora 9 distribution in today's dollars, with today's software development costs. Additionally, it would take $1.4 billion to develop the Linux kernel alone.
$10.8 billion that we don't have to spend to get an exceptionally robust operating system. $10.8 billion that we depend upon every day when using Google, Amazon, and a dizzying array of websites, as well as many of the applications we use within our own companies. There are countless companies and services enabled by this communal, multi-billion dollar investment, none of which you and I actually pay for.
This Linux R&D would be a hefty undertaking for any one company, but Linux and the open-source phenomenon that powers it didn't have to rely on any one company: Linux is developed by a community of corporations and individuals. In fact, there are over 3,200 developers from 200 companies contributing to the Linux kernel alone, according to the Linux Foundation.
This is the power of open source: much more value for much less money. Just imagine what would happen if we applied this development model to development tools, content management, CRM, web servers, ERP...oh, wait. We already have. It's just a download away.
Microsoft's research-and-development spending hit a record high in 2008, according to its most recent annual report. At the same time, the company's R&D spending relative to employee head count has gone down.
Not that it matters. For all Microsoft's spending on the future, it continues to focus its business on guarding the past. Yes, it builds cool (but useful?) things like the Sphere, but when was the last time you saw Office or Windows significantly improved by that R&D spending?
In Microsoft's defense, perhaps we've tapped out the desktop software metaphor, and there's simply not much it can do there (beyond building SharePoint and the next tier of lock-in services to guard its cash cow product lines). Unfortunately, this "defense" is also my biggest critique of Microsoft: its future is so tied up in protecting its past that it's unlikely to ever unleash true innovations from the labs that could destabilize the desktop.
If you believe, as I do, that there's a bright future beyond the traditional desktop, it's hard to get excited about Microsoft's R&D spending, knowing that it's likely to lead to more of the same, with the occasional circus curiosity like Sphere.
Microsoft's R&D spending hit an all-time high in 2008.
(Credit: Todd Bishop)Disclosure: My company, Alfresco, has a product that competes with SharePoint.
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