Blogging Ottinger (tim)Windows Server sales sound pretty exciting…
Reading about Windows Server Sales is pretty exciting, until you remember one thing: If all the world used free Linux and BSD, and only one shop on the planet bought a copy of Windows, then Microsoft would have 100% of the server software market in revenue.
I think that one thing we’re seeing is that people are realizing that there’s little need to pay for commercial offerings when debian and Ubuntu (a Debian-based product) and the various forms of BSD Unix are available without cost (and therefore without reporting). Of course, if someone uses a free Linux or Unix, then they won’t be reporting how many copies they use.
Another factor may be that you can’t buy computers without Windows. I own two laptops and four desktop computers. All of them run Linux, but most of them were sold with Windows preinstalled. By revenue and by copy, I am a Windows shop. This is despite that fact that I don’t own a single copy of Windows. I didn’t even keep the OEM copies. I think I threw them away.
I don’t know how much these factors come into play, and I agree that M$ having almost 40% of the market (by revenue) seems significant. Of course, I don’t know what that really means, and I don’t suppose anyone else does.
Yes, Windows comes on just about everything. However, in the server world, servers dont generally come with Windows Server installed. Servers generally come dumbed down and bare boned. For business’ there is a form of tracability and therefore business’ buy Windows or Linux for there servers. I could be wrong but one would think that if Linux was going to be installed on a server for business use, then there would be a PO put in to purchase Red Hat, Debian, or whatever flavor that was desired.
I haven’t had much experience setting up a Linux server, but I do have experience with Windows servers. W2K3 server is by far the easiest to set up now. Granted, there are still some things to do to lock it down but Microsoft has come a looooong way from the days of WNT and W2K. As mentioned in the article as well, developing with .NET is seamless for developers deploying to W2K3 Servers.
As you mentioned too, your desktops and laptops came with Windows. This is one way for Microsoft to say they control the market. They use the same ploy for Internet Explorer. It also comes with Windows so they can say it’s owning the market. It may be installed on my computer currently as I type this but I’m certain that I’m using Firefox to post this reply.
Comment by Steve — 2005-November-28 @ 12:18