Linux spreading among UK SMBs

The use of Linux is growing in the UK SMB market, according to a survey of 200 small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the UK, conducted in September this year by Vanson Bourne on behalf of IBM. The survey indicates that 26% of small businesses already deploy Linux. Of those not yet using Linux, 15% said they are likely to use it in the future while a further 26% were undecided, and the remaining 59% had no current intention to adopt it.

The main reason given for moving to Linux was lower costs (38% of respondents), with performance, security and reliability at 23%. The major casualty in the migration to Linux is Windows, with 42% of users having moved away from Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2003 server environments, 23% from Sun Solaris and 15% from HP UX.