Compaq leads surging Linux server market

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http://yahoo.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1681474.html

> Compaq leads surging Linux server market
> By Stephen Shankland
> Staff Writer, CNET News.com
> April 11, 2000, 11:55 a.m. PT
>
> Compaq is the top seller of Linux servers, beating out Linux
> specialty shops as well as other established computer makers in a
> market that grew 166 percent in one year, a study has found.
>
> Compaq sold 18,000 Linux servers in the fourth quarter of 1999,
> according to a study released this week by International Data
> Corp. (IDC). That gives Compaq 25 percent of the 72,400-unit
> market.
>
> Specialty shops such as VA Linux Systems, Penguin Computing and
> Atipa didn't make the top five. IBM was second, with 7,000
> servers and 10 percent of the market. Hewlett-Packard was third,
> with 5,400, Dell fourth with 5,200 and Fujitsu Siemens fifth with
> 2,300.

I'm surprised VA isn't doing better. It's hard to get an accurate
perception of Linux in the business world while being a Linux/open
source dweeb: VA is everywhere I look while the others are mostly
invisible.

> The study highlights the adolescent growth spurt of the
> relatively young operating system. Though Linux has been around
> for years, major hardware and software companies only began
> announcing support in late 1998 and early 1999. As Linux
> gradually matures, though, it faces stiffer competition in the
> form of Microsoft Windows 2000, the successor to and improvement
> on Windows NT.
>
> The Linux server market accounted for only 6 percent of the total
> entry-level server market--computers costing less than $100,000.
> However, the unit growth rate of 166 percent made Linux servers
> the fastest-growing segment of the server market, IDC said.
>
> The developments with Linux hardware mirror similar studies of
> software. IDC in February reported that Linux license shipments
> increased to second place in market share from 16 percent to 25
> percent of the 5.4 million copies that were sold in all of 1999.
>
> Microsoft Windows took first place in that study, holding a
> constant 38 percent market share, but Windows generated more
> revenue for Microsoft in a day than all the Linux sales for the
> entire year.

Wow. Enjoy it while it lasts, Bill!

So what do these revenue figures demonstrate more, Microsoft's
dominance or Linux's cost-effectiveness?

> Compaq also led in Linux hardware sales for the fourth quarter,
> with $84 million in revenue. IBM garnered $33 million, Dell $24
> million and HP $23 million.
>
> In a recent talk, IDC analyst Michelle Bailey said Linux is of
> particular appeal to people building Internet services. It's good
> for "server appliances," computers set up to perform a specific
> job such as serving Web pages or keeping track of network
> resources.
>
> In a survey of 195 businesses, 71 percent said they believe their
> Linux servers stay up and running 99.99 percent of the time--all
> but 53 minutes of the year. "They've already accepted that Linux
> servers are a reliable platform," Bailey said.
>
> While the IDC survey found that Linux beats Windows NT for price,
> performance, security and reliability, NT wins for application
> choice and ease of use, she said.
>
> Unix, the operating system on which Linux is based, beat Linux on
> service and support in the survey. Unix also works on much larger
> and more powerful servers than Linux.
>
> A recent study by consulting firm Booz-Allen & Hamilton concluded
> that Linux competes more with Unix than with Windows. "We think
> Linux's greatest threat is to proprietary Unix operating systems,
> especially Sun Microsystems' Solaris," the report said. "Sun's
> recent move to make Solaris' source code freely available is
> evidence of this."


--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/

Re: Compaq leads surging Linux server market

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If you walk into a big server farm like Exodus, it's Compaqs, Dells
and Suns almost exlusively.  

If you are ever to colocate in such a massive place, pay the extra to
be in a "cage."  Hot swappable parts (and non) are pilfered and
stuffed into bogged down servers as a quick fix or taken home.  People
working on machines is an everyday occurance and noone notices which
rack someone is working on.

--
Ted Guild
Software Developer
http://www.guilds.net
[email protected]  

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