Big Blue Wages Open Warfare, was: Re: [Jeff Covey @ Freshmeat] We Are Losing the Browser War

From: Stephen D. Williams (sdw@lig.net)
Date: Wed Mar 28 2001 - 11:03:20 PST


"Stephen D. Williams" wrote:
>
...
> We've been through the kind of monopoly that MS would tend to become,
> IMHO, with the old ATT and IBM. Competition has been a huge boon to
> consumers since those monopolies or near monopolies, respectively, were
> overcome.

I should have pointed out that the new IBM's moves are one of the
reasons that I'm optimistic about Linux, Java, XML, etc. in the near
term. I'm not, yet, worried about their regressive tendancies (although
I wish they'd kill or open source Lotus Notes).

>From Business 2.0 coverstory, April 2001 (not available online yet):

Big Blue Wages Open Warfare

"IBM, the $88 billion behemoth, is committing itself to one of the most
radical shifts in its corporate history: a move away from proprietary
systems and toward an open computing environment. Don't expect peace,
love, and flowers however. The future of IBM is at stake. And,
perhaps, the future of the entire computer industry."

"... by CEO Lou Gerstner. It's hugely ironic that he is committing the
company to what may become the most radical shift in its 77-year history
-- a tough questioning of the proprietary lock-in model and a warm
embrace of open computing."

"open computing is now central to Big Blue's future."

"Indeed, it is the lack of control -- the lack of proprietary lock-in --
that makes IBM's strategy revolutionary."

"Gerstner is basically doing a technology hedge."

"In addition to sinking $1 billion into Linux development this year, IBM
will invest $300 million over three years to create Linux-related
training, education, and consulting services."

"If IBM can afford to be agnostic, it still must persuade customers that
it is not simply attempting a different sort of lock-in. IBM's take is
that Microsoft and Sun, which are trying to sell services of their own,
cannot be trusted because their ultimate aim is to lock customers into
Windows and Solaris."

Worldwide server operating environments:

New Software license shipments by platform, 1999 and 2000 (thousands)

                1999 2000 1999-2000 growth%
WinNT/2k 2,086 38.4% 2,508 40.9% 20.2%
Linux 1,322 24.3% 1,645 26.9% 24.4%
Netware 3-5 1,064 19.6% 1,030 16.8% -3.1%
Combined Unix 826 15.2% 826 13.5% 0.0%
Other NOS 140 2.6% 116 1.9% -17.4%
Total 5,438 100.1% 6,125 100.0 12.6%

Solaris in 1999 had 22.5% of Unix market, in 2000 it's 31.7%.

So NT/2K has 40.9% in 2000, Linux/Unix has 40.4% in Unit Shipments.
This should mean that installed servers are much higher for Linux/Unix
due to copying and lower incidence of new OS shipments being counted for
existing servers.

sdw

-- 
sdw@lig.net  http://sdw.st
Stephen D. Williams
43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax 
Dec2000



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