“Sun will be tough to beat in the Unix space: it now
has nearly half of the total Unix server market, and has built
strong mind share in this space. However, the dotcom downturn will
hit it harder than other companies, and rivals such as IBM and HP,
which have solid ‘bricks and mortar’ customer bases, could gain
ground as those customers ramp up their online efforts.”
“Another contender however could be Linux, for several
years now the bridesmaid in the server market, but now looking to
catch a few bouquets of its own. The tail end of last year saw
a rash of customer announcements featuring Linux in various
business uses, including Telia, a Scandanavian telco, and
Royal/Dutch Shell.”
“Which isn’t good news if you work for a certain company in
the Seattle area, of course. While Windows 2000 is picking up
momentum, it hasn’t been the world beater people thought it would
be when it was being talked up as Windows NT 5. Microsoft probably
won’t be broken up this year, it will certainly sell a heck of a
lot of software, but it’s finding life in the enterprise arena
harder than in the desktop one.”