Server OSs

Windows is again the winner in a segment where three Windows variants, at least two Linuxes, three Unices and Netware make it to the Club. We assume that those who voted for Win NT intend to buy available Windows server software, since NT is no longer available. 

If we were to combine all Windows into one, all Linuxes into one and all Unices into one, then Windows would have an indexed score of 100, Unix of 39, Linux of 30 and Netware will fail to make it to the Club. Compared to last year's figures, Linux has grown from an indexed score of 20 to 30, while Netware has shrunk. So, what is very clearly coming out is that
Windows is king, Unix is well and alive in the enterprise, Linux is growing and Netware is not completely dead!

Windows shows high brand loyalty at 83 percent as compared to 77 percent last year; Linux also shows an increase in loyalty since last year, up from 67 percent to 73 percent. Solaris is at a brand loyalty of 60 percent. If we were to break up the Linux distributions, then RedHat Linux has a higher brand loyalty of 81 percent.

Given that today's networks are heterogeneous, these brand shifts are not to be taken as whole-scale shifting; rather what the next lot of implementations are likely to be. Windows users who want to shift include seven percent who want to move to Linux and eight percent who want to move to 'Others'. For Linux, nine percent want to move to Windows, seven percent to Solaris and 11 percent to 'Others'. From current Solaris users, 10 percent would move to Linux, 13 percent to Windows and 17 percent to 'Others'.

What does the future portend? We are not seeing any dramatic shift towards or away from any brand. Our conclusion, and it is not surprising, is that the networks of tomorrow will continue to be heterogeneous. If anything, that heterogeneous nature is only bound to increase.>

2003