Windows bumps Unix as top server OS

[psilos]

Cnet isn't always a credible news source but this isn't their news its from an IDC report which you can take with a grain of salt because in a few weeks Gartner will probably have out a report that says otherwise. This back and fourth goes on each year with Unix server sales, IDC - "Sun is the no. 1 Unix server" Gartner - "No! IBM over took Sun by .1%". They are probably right about the Windows part though, Windows servers are cheaper and hence would sell more. Remember its not about which one is better its about who is more popular and has more user friendly/cheaper software. Open source software is free but the documentation nuff times is lacking. Not many Enterprises are willing to use software without 24/7 or 9-5 pm weekday support.

[megiddo]

Windows servers cost more than unix servers?
no they dont.I dont think they were talking about free linux or BSD.

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plus if u look at ibm's unix servers vs dell's windows servers, windows costs more

[leoandru]

hhmm.. there's no UNIX servers on that list megiddo. what happen to IBM's AIX os and Sun's Solaris?

[megiddo]

i was just showing the windows vs linux costs, i couldnt get any outright cost from dell for aix, so i couldn't post a price

[pogi_2nr]

My point got lost in translation it seems.

My interpretation of the article is that they are looking at hardware sales

Computer makers sold $17.7 billion worth of Windows servers worldwide in 2005 compared with $17.5 billion in Unix servers

They further go on to state

Servers are powerful networked machines for tasks such as handling e-mail, financial transactions, airline reservations and file storage.

The cheapest sun server I could found on their site costs about 1000usd and
consists of a 550MHz CPU with 256MB ram and a 80GB ide drive.

The cheapest dell server I found on their site costs about 500usd had a 2.3GHz
CPU with 512MB ram and a 80GB sata disk.

[psilos]

i was just showing the windows vs linux costs, i couldnt get any outright cost from dell for aix, so i couldn't post a price

I'm guessing this was a typo but for everyone else who may not know AIX runs only on POWER architecture and is designed exclusively for IBM hardware. The only other company you can get an AIX server from is Bull in Europe who has license agreement with IBM to make/sell them. Proprietary Unixes (AIX, HP-UX, Tru64, Iris) generally only work on the same hardware from the OS manufacturer which adds to the premium on the price and guarantees vendor lock in.