Linux May Pose Threat To Unix Market Share

By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2008-09-25

Prevailing wisdom has it that, in everyday life, something cannot spring from nothing. Plants use nutrients in the ground and energy from the sun in order to grow. Cars take gas from the pump in order to run. And Linux may be grabbing market share from Unix as it looks to become more popular.

The Data Center Decisions 2008 Purchasing Intentions Survey will surprise no one with its finding that Microsoft Windows is a dominant force; about 91 percent of data centers use the product. Red Hat Linux Enterprise is a common choice, and Novell SUSE has been embraced in more than a few places.

Pam Derringer reports, "But Linux use could be on the upswing: 47% of respondents said they would use or evaluate Linux in the coming year, with lower cost as the primary driver." And although most folks claimed to be looking at Linux as a Windows replacement, that may not be the case.

George Weiss, Gartner's vice president, "believes that companies have continued to migrate off Unix in large numbers as well as off Solaris Sparc servers and RISC processors, so all migrations to Linux are not at Windows' expense," according to Derringer. Gartner's a highly respected research and consulting firm.

Also, "Relative to legacy systems, Linux's growth is buoyed by survey data. Sixty-three percent of shops will increase their spending on Linux-based systems this year, compared with at most 39% increase for legacy Unix, iSeries and mainframe systems."

These stats will be worth keeping an eye on as the months pass, or perhaps even in the shorter term. Since Unix's market share isn't huge, any decrease should be easy to notice, and then a real alarm of sorts can be sounded. Or, if a decrease doesn't occur, protective Unix fans can rest a little easier.

Perhaps such fans can try to push Unix instead of Linux as a Windows replacement in the meantime.

About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.