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Linux/UNIX Server Market Share Beats NT/Win2K Posted by Tim O'Reilly, 8/9/00 at 1:58:51 PM. Due to stiff necks on both sides of the UNIX/Linux fence, and the Open Group's request to analysts that UNIX and Linux market share not be amalgamated in research reports, a major story goes unreported. The latest IDC numbers tell a seemingly familiar story: "32 bit Windows" leads the pack in server operating system unit shipments, with 36% of the market, followed by Linux at 24%, Netware at 19%, and Unix at 15%. Why is no one noting the obvious? The differences between Linux and UNIX are similar in scope and significance to the differences between NT and Windows 2000, or arguably even less significant. Why are the 32 bit Windows numbers amalgamated, and not the Linux/UNIX numbers? What I've been told by various analysts is that, for trademark reasons, the Open Group, which holds the UNIX trademark, has asked them to treat UNIX and Linux separately. I suspect that many in the Linux community have the same feeling, but for the opposite reason: they don't want Linux to be confused with UNIX. But as a user (avoiding all the political and marketing issues that make us want to draw lines where they don't really exist) I say that Linux and UNIX belong together in these kinds of surveys. The technical differences between Red Hat and SuSe or Debian are as great, in many ways, as the differences between Red Hat and FreeBSD. As Kirk McKusick says, all the Linuxes have the same kernel, but different utilities; all the BSDs have different kernels but the same utilities. What is so sacred about the kernel? Solaris and AIX have different kernels too. As a user, I can move from UNIX to Linux without a whole lot of headaches. I don't want to say that the Linux licensing story isn't an important distinction from UNIX, but when we're talking about market share for an approach to server based computing, here is my version of the IDC unit shipment numbers: Linux/UNIX take the top spot, with 39% of the market, followed by 32-bit windows (NT and 2000) at 36%, and Novell a distant third at 19%. Looks to me like we have a winner.