A new research by IDC suggests that despite the current economic downturn, Linux will see 21% growth in customer spending in 2009, while the overall software market will increase by 2%

Linux is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6%. IDC predicts that Linux growth will see a significant boost because of it’s compatibility with two of the hottest trends in the industry, virtualization and cloud computing.

Note that the  IDC white paper “The Opportunity for Linux in a New Economy” has been sponsored by the Linux Foundation.