I posted early before based on their percentages, and believe my data is correct [...] I don't think NT could break 10% of total workstations sold in enterprise.
From an IDC study:
Microsoft NT server broke away from the rest of the server operating environment pack in 1997 with an 80 percent growth in unit sales over the previous year.
NT experienced most of its growth in the so called departmental servers serving 20 to 50 people, according to IDC research manager Jean Bozman.
Microsoft shipped 1.3 million units in 1997, up from 732,000 in 1996 and 393,000 in 1995. Unix shipments totaled 717,000, NetWare shipments totaled 900,000, and IBM shipped OS/2 226,000 units.
This is exactly how the PC has eaten up traditionally centralized IT functions. First they replaced terminals on desks, then file-servers in 5-10 user LANs. Now we are up to 20-50 people range, and each of these LANs are usually interconnected via TCP/IP, making the departmental software less localized than what a File server on a LAN used to be.
You have to realize that 100% of college graduates majoring in science, engineering, and computer are all fluent in Unix systems. Nobody real care much about NT in the application development world.
This is starting to change. Most students now learn to program on PCs. More importantly, universities are starting to switch to Java, and the development environments of choice for Java are PC based. |
