Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 08:13:10 -0900 From: Brian Raynes <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us> To: Anthony Atkielski <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Prevalence of FreeBSD and UNIX among servers Message-ID: <3C0D0426.BEC515D7@dnr.state.ak.us> References: <00ef01c17cda$6b419760$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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Anthony Atkielski wrote: > > According to an article in BusinessWeek: > > http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_50/b3761094.htm > > Non-Linux versions of UNIX are expected to slip from 14% of the server market to 10% next year, and Linux is expected to grow from > 27% to 32%. Is this really true? This would imply that organizations are actively junking UNIX systems such as FreeBSD to go to > Linux, which I find extremely hard to believe (I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to junk any xxxBSD to install > Linux, which seems like a step backwards). Anyone know where these figures are coming from, or how realistic they are? From other articles on these numbers, I believe that the trend is to dump Solaris on Sun Microsystems machines for Linux on cheaper Intel machines. I believe this is a cost issue - virtually free, with little administrative cost difference is tough to compete with. Some people also tend to lump the xBSD systems under the Linux numbers, because both are free vs. the proprietary Unixes. There also seems to be a trend for the owners of some of the proprietary Unixes to switch their emphasis to Linux - maybe to reduce development and maintenance costs? That might explain some of these numbers, too. I think that the increase in Windows is due to people tired of betting against MS. I am recently converted to the xBSD and even Linux camp, due to cost reasons and a little by quality and geek appeal. I was hearing my fellow Comp. Science students predicting Unix would crush Microsoft back in 1988, when Windows 3.0 was in beta testing. Nearly 14 years of harsh reality can eventually persuade people that things don't always turn out in the way we think they should. Back then, I had difficulty making my peers understand why people would stick to DOS over Unix, just to have Wordperfect and Lotus 123. Unix was also incredibly more expensive than DOS or Windows. Now that everyone seems to get that, Unix finally has quality office productivity apps, but MS has meanwhile attained a certain air of invulnerability. Now, I'm predicting their aggressive anti-customer license control policies, along with outrageous pricing for applications with functionality that can mostly be duplicated for free will serve to bite them very hard in the next few years. Notice that quality wasn't mentioned - they are good enough for most people to resist changing. Brian Raynes To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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