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Unix beats Windows NT and Linux in server market

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CIOL Bureau
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In a closely watched battle between Unix, Windows and Linux, machines running

on Unix continued to lead the pack closely followed by Windows NT and Linux.

According to a study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Unix machines led

the market with a wide margin of $29 billion in sales in 2000, while Windows

NT-based servers accounted for $13.9 billion, a 14 per cent increase. Machines

running on Linux rung up $ 1.7 billion in sales, a 132 per cent jump from 1999.

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"We were surprised by the overall growth of the Linux market, I think

Microsoft will pay attention now," said Vernon Turner, IDC vice president

for worldwide servers.

Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems replaced IBM as the top maker of computer servers

in the United States. IBM retained the top spot on a worldwide basis, said

International Data Corp. "Sun is now the No. 1 server vendor in the United

States. But IBM is still by far the No. 1 server vendor worldwide," said

Turner.

According to the IDC survey: The worldwide sales of server computers

increased 7.5 per cent to $60.2 billion in 2000 from $56 billion in 1999. Sun's

server market share increased to 17 per cent in 2000, from 13 per cent in 1999.

Sun had $10.3 billion in 2000 sales, up 42 per cent from $7.3 billion in 1999.

IBM had $13.6 billion in sales last year, up from $13.1 billion in 1999.

Some of the other findings include:

* IBM shot to the first place from third in the hotly contested market for

midrange machines costing $100,000 to $1 million and took second place in Unix

overall from Hewlett-Packard.



* Sun maintained its lead in Unix as a whole and in the high and low ends of the
category, but it dropped to third from second in the midrange. Hewlett-Packard

took second place from IBM in the entry range.



* In the fourth quarter, IBM led the market with 27 per cent of server revenues,
followed by Compaq at 16.34 per cent; Sun Micro, 16.32; Hewlett-Packard, 14 per

cent; and Dell Computer with nearly 6 per cent.



* For the year, IBM led with 23 per cent, followed by Sun with 17 per cent,
Compaq with 16.5 per cent, Hewlett-Packard with 15 per cent and Dell with 6 per cent.


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