[ Thanks to Norman
Gaywood for this link. ]
Graeme Philipson, a columnist for it.mycareer.com.au, points to
an Australian survey by the market-research firm Strategic Research
and concludes that it’s just a matter of time before Windows is
truly everywhere — with Linux not making a dent in the
enterprise:
Unix is very strong in the data centre, but it peaked
years ago and is continuing a slow but steady decline. IBM
mainframe and midrange operating systems are also declining, quite
significantly, after a long rearguard battle. Linux, despite all
the hype, is barely making an impact, and other proprietary
operating systems like Compaq’s VMS and Novell Netware are all but
dead….
You would think it was the Next Big Thing, and indeed
it is attracting some support for marginal applications. But fewer
than 1 per cent of data centres intend to use it for serious
applications. As Strategic Research’s Rob O’Neill says: “In two
years’ time Linux may be running the primary school network in
Wollongong, but you can bet what’s left of your tech-stock
portfolio it won’t be running the steelworks down the
road.”