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)
----- Original Message ----- From: "MJ Ray" markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk
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).
HP-UX is certainly fading out in Japan and Asia. Even HP engineers don't use HP-UX anymore to develop something interesting, rather they prefer to use Linux series.
Linux share has been widen up within a year in Japan, but there is a problem. Japanese users demand whole lotta more support assurance for Linux than European and American counterparts, and they want it in Japanese, not English. Japanese customers demand "the perfection" - price, performance, reliability and the list goes on. "Support" is only the part that Linux (in Japan) suffers.
My feeling is that Japanese version of Linux has gone too much localization, alas too much "own way", thus drifting away from its own Linux.
Most customers still prefer Sun's Solaris for its support, full stop. Win2k has been released recently, but I do not hear much about projects using Win2k yet,
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.
For both private and commercial, Linux is the solution for laptops to me.
Dave Cartwright (yes, the ex-UEA/SYS one for those who remember)
MJR (yes, the current UEA/MTH one)
Tatsuhiko Maekawa (yes, the ex-UEA/Student Web Editor for those who remember (not to mention SOC))
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MJ Ray -
Tatsuhiko Maekawa