“There are signs of a swing away from Intel- and Windows
NT-based servers towards Unix. Compaq still tops the supplier’s
list with a 32 percent share of the market, but this is down from
34 percent. IBM and Dell managed to gain just one percentage point
each — to 19 and 11 percent respectively — while Sun doubled its
share to eight percent….”
“New e-businesses are bound to require Unix-based systems of one
sort or another, a fact brought out by the Gartner figures showing
that, while Wintel-based systems grew just one percent, Unix server
sales grew 43 percent. There is a strong trend here towards Linux
systems among the catch-all measurement of Unix, of course, but the
important trend is away from Microsoft’s offerings.”
“Microsoft’s position has not been helped by its sloth in
bringing some of its important e-business applications to market.
The company has only just launched its Commerce Server 2000, over a
year late. Admittedly, the final product has features essential for
many e-business systems, such as business-decision support and
content management, but the software could have been released
sooner if Microsoft had used technology already available.”