Proof that desktop Linux market is growing

When proprietary vendors start selling proprietary add-ons it is good for open source.

You may need to repeat this to yourself a few times upon learning that FarStone Technologies will re-sell its RestoreIT disaster recovery package through Linspire under the name RestoreIT Linux Edition. The announcement was made today at the Desktop Linux Summit in San Diego.

Tom Fedro (above), vice president-sales and marketing operations for FarStone, told me the 13 year old Irvine, Calif.-based company looks upon this just like the OEM deals it has with firms like Intel, Phoenix Technologies, and numerous ISPs around the world.

"Growth in open source is dramatic," he said. "We’re talking to all the big players, and they are all positive that this kind of thing is important.

"We see Linux as a tremendous opportunity."

But FarStone is not an open source company. Not at all. "We’re not open source. We are bundling our application with the operating system of these Linux providers. This is a value add to their offering."

Fedro said the desktop Linux market is forecast to grow to 17 million units in the next two years, with an installed base of 42 million.

And don't worry about the price. "The cost in a bundle is usually passed on to the consumer as a value-add. It doesn’t add to the product price. For people like Phoenix it’s a true OEM relationship where they pay us a license fee and remarket it under their own name. In the case of an ISP they sell it as a subscription service."

So just keep repeating to yourself. This is good news. This is good news. This is very good news indeed...