David Cartwright dsc@cube8.com writes:
Are Microsoft really catching up? Are Sun and HP losing out to Linux?
Well, Linux is catching up with MS in terms of market share, while it seems that MS is catching up in terms of stability and "gee wow" UI frippery (from what I see on my neighbour's Win2k desktop). I'm still healthily doubtful about Windows being able to work on two architectures equally well, as we all remember what a success NT on Alpha has been, right?
Sun and HP probably are losing the low-end to Linux. How far that goes depends what tactics Sun and HP adopt to block it (as this nearly always results in shooting oneself in the foot) or adopt it (which sometimes helps, sometimes hinders).
Will Linux be big on the desktop? Whatever happened to SGI?
Well, as you know, where I'm working already has Unix on the desktop and a growing proportion of them are Linux now, because it's cheaper to roll out than Solaris (even though the Solaris OS has no purchase cost to us either) and there's more documentation and assistance out there for it. SGI appear to be confused.
Should we all forget commercial *nixes, or do the Suns and HPs of this world still have plenty of marketplace alongside those of us with Linux on our laptops?
Wait and see what happens on SMP, clustering, etc. Some of the pure mathematicians are already a lot happier running their software on Linux rather than the Suns, as they can add more power more cheaply(sp?) to commodity x86 hardware.
Dave Cartwright (yes, the ex-UEA/SYS one for those who remember)
Applying for any upcoming UEA vacancies? ;-)
MJR (yes, the current UEA/MTH one)