Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 21:30:25 +0930 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> Cc: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith), chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Digital, Intel, Silicon Graphics (fwd) Message-ID: <199710081200.VAA04024@word.smith.net.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 08 Oct 1997 06:40:01 -0400." <199710081040.GAA17760@hda.hda.com>
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> > > Think this guy included *BSD, Linux, or even SCO shipments? > > > > Nope. And in fact BSD/Linux/SCO/Intel Solaris systems probably get > > counted as "Wintel" if they go onto shrinkwrap hardware due to the good > > ol' OEM licensing scheme that MS use. > > > > > Or was he > > > just counting "boxes" from the big UNIX guys? And, exactly what is > > > UNIX? Should the millions of licenses for VxWorks, QNX, LynxOS, and > > > other UNIX-like embedded systems count? > > > > It's almost certain that this posting was either a troll or someone > > trying to angle things to their advantage. > > No, neither - this was a private mailing list and JG does his > research. He was a bit of a canary in the coal mine with well > timed ship-jumping at Alliant, though honestly at that point the > gasses were visible enough he was more of an ostrich in the coal > mine. If he really does his research, why isn't he qualifying the fact that it's very hard to determine the accuracy of some of the numbers he's quoting? How come there's no qualification of the numbers for the Unix systems, eg. number of licenses shipped or number of new boxes shipped? Workstation hardware generally has a lifetime 2 or 3 times that of PC hardware (being conservative); it's not uncommon for a single system to wear 4 or more OS releases, wheras with a Wintel system you're normally changing hardware faster than you are software. It's also little short of ludicrous to cross-compare "Wintel" as a whole against the workstation market; somewhat like comparing the market for ballpoint pens against that for fountain pens. Ballpoints rule the earth by volume, but I still have no trouble sourcing fountain pens and they show no sign of becoming less popular. This sort of slippery qualification was my primary justification for concluding that the numbers were gathered in support of a conclusion, rather than the conclusion reached in light of the numbers. > Noting the tone some of the responses are taking and not singling > out Mike, PLEASE NO ONE GO SENDING HIM NASTY MESSAGES. I thought > it important for attribution to leave his name in. I had no intention of leaping down his throat; I would *hope* that the other readers here have at least as much sense. > The reason I forwarded this is it points out the lack of info on > the Internet operating systems (sounds much better than "freeware" > or "shareware") even for someone who tends to do his research > carefully. I wish he'd actually said something like that, rather than dismissed "no information" as meaning "no users". From generally available information I can offer that FreeBSD is Walnut Creek's second most popular OS product, and that about twelve months ago Jordan commented that they were selling "thousands" of copies a month. I don't expect that it's going any slower than that now, and that completely disregards the number of systems installed off the 'net, or sourced from other vendors, etc. mike
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