Linux adoption in the enterprise is slowing down? Not so fast says one analyst firm, which took a closer look at a report that showed Linux adoption slowing from the significant growth rates of the past few years.

Today IDC announced their market sizing numbers showing revenues for servers running Linux or Windows outpaced the sales of the rest of the market in the final quarter of 2007.

Nine months following the heralded official release of the GPLv3 licenses, and with the more recent addition of the Affero GPLv3, adoption has surpassed 50% of my projections.

This tip explains how server virtualization will benefit Linux and Unix operating system adoption but will most likely harm Windows Server adoption by relieving the one-operating-system-to-one-server modus operandi. You'll review the drawbacks of using Windows operating systems and the rewards that virtualization offers to not only IT architects but end-users and application vendors and learn how these factors will combine and affect the current use of Linux, Unix and Windows operating systems.

"Could enterprises' rapid adoption of Linux and open source software mask a hidden challenge for IT managers?...If you believe the latest research from Westport, Conn.-based Saugatuck Technology Inc., the answer could be yes; the substantial growth of open source software over the past few years now presents a double-edged sword, the firm said in a recent report..."

IDC is reporting that Windows server growth hit 6.9 percent in Q4 2007, bringing it to 36.6 percent market share. Linux trounced Windows' growth at 11.6 percent to hit 12.7 percent market share. Microsoft owns the market, but Linux owns the future.

In Gartner's assessment of the server market in the fourth quarter of 2009, X64 servers and blades in particular were singled out as the growth engines. With IDC's similar, but different, report Thursday we learn that the Windows platform was the real beneficiary of the bump in sales.

Rapid growth in the market for x86 servers over the past year brought good news for both Linux and Windows, as research firm IDC reported last week. That's no accident. Linux is eminently better suited to server use than Windows. Why? Let's count the ways.

So just what is it about Linux and Open Source that company owners and executives don’t like?