Interesting bit on IDC's ``forecast''

["Marcelo E. Magallon" <mmagallo@efis.ucr.ac.cr>]

Slashdot recently posted this link:

 http://www.idc.com/Data/Software/content/SW033199PR.htm

 | Other Operating Environments Will Have Trouble Keeping up with
 | Linux's Growth
 |
 | Linux Commercial Shipments Will Increase at a Four-Year Rate of 25%
 |
 [...]
 |
 | Linux, which is a Unix-like operating system written and developed
 | by Linus Torvalds in 1991, can be downloaded from the Internet at
 | no charge. Several companies, including Red Hat, SuSE, Caldera, and
 | Pacific HiTech, have created their own distributions of Linux by
 | taking its freely distributed source code and providing
 | documentation, installation procedures, packaging, and Open Source
 | applications available in a comprehensive package. IDC reports on
 | only these commercial shipments of Linux.

 I know this is just a description of their methodology, and they are
 in the IT forecasting and advising bussiness, and they can choose
 whatever method produces the numbers that fit their own interests...

 ... but the fact that IDC is actually saying that they _knowingly_
 ignore non-commercial distributions (that is, Debian GNU/Linux) gives
 me the creeps.

 Just a random thought,

                                        Marcelo