“Is Unix dead? My answer is no, it’s not dead. As a matter of fact, I think I hear it laughing on its way to the bank. Fewer Unix systems are being shipped, but they’re commanding a higher premium than ever. Unix still represents a $2 billion [EUR 1.7 billion] market, the largest operating-system market by far. Despite Windows Server recent gains, it still represents about $1.6 billion [EUR 1.3 billion], when you’re looking at operating system-only revenues. And Linux in terms of revenues represents one-tenth of what the good, gray Unixes combined represent. Granted the future belongs to Linux, but as a $2 billion market, is Unix dead?”
Yes, UNIX is dead. I am a soul writting this from paradise with my unix-based desktop :-))
“Yes, UNIX is dead. I am a soul writting this from paradise with my unix-based desktop :-))”
ha ha ha ha ha
UNIX is like a cat, they keep trying to kill it, but it seems to have too many lives.
It was better in the past…UNIX is from the past.
So nothing suprisingly :=)
Not a very interesting or insightful article, but the topic itself is very intruiging nonetheless. I know that there are still many enterprises (even medium sized ones) which use UNIX for ERP and Workflow Management servers.
Then again, when Linux was gaining popularity on the server area, it was said that it was mostly at the cost of UNIX, not Windows. I wonder if that statement is still valid.
Does this mean that BSD could actually be dead after all? I mean, UNIX may be alive (not kicking, it’s usually the man behind the scenes), but we all know that BSD != UNIX, right? (Sorry for this stupid yet obligatory joke).
Edited 2006-01-27 20:56
I don`t need to read the article to comment the TITLE. If somebody want to say “unix is dead” then It is his subjective point of view. I used Windows OS for many years, now I discovering the endless posibilities of UNIX (freebsd).
Today when I say UNIX, it is not “only UNIX” i think it is “UNIX like”. and many of todays technilogies that we are using every day are supported or depending UNIX os like *bsd or linux.
Even this wery site is somehow connected to unux like system that is supporting conectivity or webhosting.
it is the alternative in life, some people likes to MAKE clasical music and some rock music. Some people like to BUY and listen clasical music and some rock music.
Some businesses are using unix (like) operating systems because they are the product they need for business… I think the life is about optimalising all tasks that we are facing, OS is one of life tasks
and unix is unix!
I don`t think that CARTOONS are DEAD only because I am 25 and don`t watch cartoons
I know kids like them…. it is the same with women, drinks, movies, cars,music, phones and operating systems….
Edited 2006-01-27 21:16
The thought of Unix being dead based on sales figures? Sale are down becasue before the bubble companies were buying machines just becasue they could. Lately they have maximized their investment and consolidated machines not to mention finally making use of the overbuilt boxes.
The thought of Unix being dead based on sales figures? Sale are down becasue before the bubble companies were buying machines just becasue they could. Lately they have maximized their investment and consolidated machines not to mention finally making use of the overbuilt boxes.
That, and margins have decreased whilst volume has increased – IBM and SUN both show that the total number of machines shipped have increased substantially.
What I think it dead is the days of massive prices, ultra high margins, and the belief that UNIX is untouchable; SUN is selling Opteron servers and workstations loaded with Solaris, it’ll just be a matter of time, over the business buying cycle as they see the new offerings more compelling opportunity.
The author admits that Windows Server has made big gains in the server market. And this article wasn’t part of a Microsoft sponsered study.
I guess MS was right after all.
Sounds like someone is overpaying for their OSes
SCO Unix?
Linux + FreeBSD + Solaris + HP UX?
FreeBSD?
You know, The Open Group has a rather strict specification of what UNIX is.
http://www.unix.org/
http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/why_this_is_different.html
Some Linux distributions have actually applied for and been certified Single UNIX Specification- compliant… It’s largely an issue of money and how much people care about POSIX/SUSv3 compliance. (Unifix Linux, apparently used to be POSIX-certified)
For that matter, Windows XP is actually fairly POSIX-compliant (I can’t find a more reliable source than Wikipedia for this, sorry), when you install their Services For UNIX, which is apparently now part of Windows 2003.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX
Microsoft paid their money; Linux and the BSDs generally haven’t.
After all, in every technical sense, Linux is Unix, the BSDs are Unix, and Apple’s OSX is Unix. The only reason you don’t hear them called Unix is trademark law.
Nothing’s left today other than Microsoft and Unix.
Nothing’s left today other than Microsoft and Unix.
If you day that out loud where I work you’re likely to get clobbered by an old bearded mainframe guy.
Mainframes and cobol, still going strong in some circles.
And what is the old guy’s mainframe running? VMS? LispMachine? TOPS-20? Multics? Z/OS (which is UNIX anyway)?
Huh? z/OS is Unix? Where did you get that misinformation from?
z/OS has indeed a Unix subsystem, but it is only a component of z/OS.
BSD ROCKS!
I had to say it again lol. I love BSD, and I *ALMOST* agree with the top posters.
Someone said it’s now UNIX Vs. Windows. I disagree. There are still many “amateur/hobby” (some professional) OSs out there. Menuet, Visopsys, V2, SkyOS, SyllableOS, BeOS, BOS… the list goes on.
Sure they are not too popular and some of them may have been heavily influenced by UNIX, but they are different
Anyways, Unix is not dead, FAR from it
(OPENBSD!!!)
–ZaNkY
Ask Apple if they think UNIX is dead.
I bet there is going to be a resurgence in Unix area in the coming years mostly because of Solaris. With the way things are going with Solaris lately it is definitely destined to take its fair share from Windows and Linux. Solaris is just a screamingly good value compared with both commercial Linuxes and Windows and that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
And Solaris is not alone. It looks like even IBM while being the most stalwart supporter of Linux is moving back to AIX. I guess after a while they realized that it is AIX and not Linux is bringing bacon to the company, so they are investing something on the order of $100M to speed up AIX development and improve AIX acceptance. Hats off to IBM for that.
What IBM Need to do, however, is make their AIX more accessible – start pushing out PPC970 kits, make it cheaper for people to obtain PPC970 machines that can run AIX for a small token price – like how SUN did with their solaris media kits that sold for $50 or so.
I don’t disagree with your main point, I just have one nit that really bothers me. You said that IBM is “moving back to AIX”.
As far as I can tell, they were never moving away from. Everyone thinks that just because they are pumping money into Linux, they’ve given up on AIX. This is total bull. They offer two UNIX-like environments, a commercial-grade enterprise UNIX (AIX) and and Open-Source solution (Linux). The two are not at odds with each other and neither is going away.
We don’t want to disturb all our Windows only friends. Unix is dead to them and until 4 years ago I thought the future belonged to MS. Then RH 8.0 happened followed by Knoppix, I was hooked. FreeBSD 4.9 – 5.0 spanked me and taught me the power of a shell. Boy am I glad someone woke me from my ignorant bliss. My, GUI addicted, MS only buds are shocked when I whip out my Treo and manage my mail server through ssh. No, Unix based systems are not dead. It seems they have gotten a renewed focus, especially on the desktop front.
Heres to Unix and FOSS. You hackers do a GREAT job!
flip
> As far as I can tell, they were never moving away from. Everyone thinks that just because they are pumping money into Linux, they’ve given up on AIX. This is total bull.
Errm, if you ever talked to IBM sales people and ever watched their presentations, in the last few years they were explicitly saying that Linux is the long term platform for IBM and AIX is relegated to a “legacy”. This is why they started marketing “Linux affinity” so strongly and this is why letter “L” was attached to AIX version numbers — to slowly move the customers away from AIX to Linux on Power hardware. Obviously now they realized that customers don’t care much for Linux on pSeries and really want AIX. This is why this shift is taking place, AIX is IBM’s cash cow and not Linux. Guess what, there is no letter “L” in the upcoming AIX 6. Linux is a comfortable way in the door for IBM and the real end game is AIX — riding on the Linux hype way IBM sells Linux to the customer, then moves them to AIX…
“Errm, if you ever talked to IBM sales people and ever watched their presentations, in the last few years they were explicitly saying that Linux is the long term platform for IBM and AIX is relegated to a “legacy”.”
Apparently the IBM sales people didn’t get the memo about the new UNIX/AIX reseach facility they are building in Austin, Texas.
http://www.colltech.com/news_coverage_statesman.htm
Unix is not dead, apart from SCO Unix but thats another story!
I had a women who runs a collection agency bring her server to my business. It was a SCO Xenix box. What a headache. A proprietory app written by the people who sold her the company. I convinced her to backup all data and apps she needed and try freebsd, which has at least some support for running SCO software. My god Xenix must be at least 20yrs. old now.