Novell Claims Highest Linux Share in China

Published: March 7, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

In an effort to get as much good news as possible out there as Wall Street mulls its short-term and long-term prospects in the operating system market, Novell announced last week that according to an indigenous market researcher in China had given Novell the mantel of top Linux shipper in that burgeoning IT market.

According to Qian Lei, computer and software analyst at CCID Consulting, Novell had a 25.1 percent share of the Linux market in 2005, beating out Red Hat as well as local Linux distributors in the region, including Red Flag Linux, Miracle Linux, and others. CCID did not give market share figures out for the other Linux players, so we have no idea how much of a lead Novell has. Lei cited Novell's partnerships with Chinese partners CS2C, Hua Wei, ZTE, Neusoft, and Skybility. Novell also touted the fact that it has launched a Chinese development site for the openSUSE, which as over 100,000 visitors to the site to date.