The Linux threat against Sun is not that big as far as I see. Unix users think that Linux is cute and good for their parents, but want to stay with a more stable system like Sun Solaris for running their applications. These applications include the GNU/Linux apps like the Apache web-server, that currently has more than 50% market share, but the computer and the operating system belongs to Sun.
Sun wants NT users to convert to Sun Solaris. Linux makes this possible, since NT users that have understood the GNU/Linux principles, are much easier to sell Sun Solaris to. Sun can therefore expect a bigger market for Sun Solaris, that hopefully grows faster than the people switching from Sun Solaris to Linux.
The benefits of the GNU software, that people often refer to as "Linux", is, that it runs on all kinds of processors, operatingsystems etc. GNU and Linux are 64 bit on Alpha platforms, and easily outperforms Windows, which is currently only 32 bit, even on the Alpha platform.
Lars Dybdahl
Denmark
E-mail: lars@dybdahl.dk
(using Carl Mehrs account) |
