Rank	Name	Revenue (millions $)
1	Microsoft	$13,800
2	IBM	1,574
3	Hewlett-Packard	732
4	Sun Microsystems	611
5	Hitachi Limited	533

Ranked by revenue
Source: IDC, July 2005

Microsoft Continues To Dominate

The free Linux operating systems may be growing in popularity, but it's not slowing down Microsoft. The Redmond giant continued to grow its operating systems (OS) market share in 2004, according to market researcher IDC. Microsoft sold $13.8 billion worth of client and server operating systems licenses and maintenance contracts. IBM was a distant second, with $1.57 billion in operating system-related sales. Linux vendors, which typically count on just service and maintenance deals to generate revenue, accounted for less than 1% of operating systems sales and didn't make it into the top-5 ranking.

Posted: 7/14/05