The latest issue of IDC's "Industry Forecaster" focuses on the future development of the Linux support and services market and I thought this, though somewhat OT, might be of general interest. As IDC points out, support services are a critical need for Linux to become accepted in mainstream corporate environments that currently lack Linux skills, support staff, etc. The corporate market is also the foundation of Microsoft's strength, so gaining a significant share there would assure Linux of success.

The IDC newsletter is not GPL'd, so I can't attach it here. But, overall it's quite favorable for Linux: support revenue is forecasted to increase at a compound annual growth rate of about 87% and training revenue at between 63 and 98% over the next four years. A short version of the report is available at http://www.idc.com/itforecaster/itf20010213.stm .