The Windows-versus-Linux server face-off
Linux certainly has established itself as a prominent server OS these days, pushing Unix into the background. But the open source OS shares the stage with commercial software giant Microsoft, which remains a dominant player with Windows Server.
Gartner research published this month found the server OS market shaping up as a battle between Windows Server and Linux. Gartner in other research also has found both OSes on a growth track in terms of revenue. "There still seems to be plenty of robust interest in deploying on Windows, but Linux is still very key," says Gartner analyst George Weiss.
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A lot of Linux usage is in Web server applications, but it's become increasingly common in mission-critical applications, Weiss notes. But "I don't have an indicator that says Linux is chewing up the market for Windows," he adds.
Other forms of Unix continue to fade away in what is becoming a two-OS choice for IT. "The key here is that really Linux and Windows are moving away from the pack here and it's becoming a two-horse race," says Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.
Both Linux and Windows Server see datacenter growth
Regarding migration of current workloads, 43 percent of respondents in a Gartner survey at a Linux-oriented conference anticipated migrating mostly from Unix to Linux, 13 percent said they would migrate mostly from Windows to Linux, and only 4 percent said they would switch off Linux to go to Windows. Twenty-one percent had no plans to migrate workloads.
Gartner expects IT organizations to shift their focus to more-complex Linux deployments and continue a trend of migration from Unix. Gartner found that 52 percent of respondents anticipate that the total workload of their Linux server environment will increase moderately in 2008; another 25 percent said there would be a substantial increase. Only 5 percent anticipated moderate decrease, while 4 percent expected a substantial decrease in Linux workloads for this year. Respondents were three times more likely to migrate workloads from Unix to Linux than from Windows to Linux.
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Linux/Unix vs. Windows
Lest we forget, Linux is still a Unix OS, but it is an OS that runs on a PC architecture instead of a RISC architecture. So if Linux wins the ultimate battle, Unix also wins. The shops that are migrating from Unix servers to Linux servers are only really migrating to another piece of hardware. They are still running a Unix OS.The GNU in GNU/Linux stands
The GNU in GNU/Linux stands for GNU's *not* Unix.So no, they are not using unix, and linux is not unix.