[GTALUG] Linux Unicorns

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 3:51 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

| Old Unicorns came from different times.  25 years ago, it wasn't obvious that
> Linux would be where it is (and isn't).
> |
> | Speak for yourself. 🙂
> |
> | I was kinda certain that Linux would overtake Unix early in its life;
> that  feeling was confirmed when the first Beowulf clusters came online
> and DEC | imploded in the late 90s, and fully cemented when Oracle bought
> Sun less | than a decade later. The increasing commoditization of PC
> components combined with the neverending balkanization of Unix hardware
> increasingly made the progression to dominance inevitable, the main issue
> was how long it would take
>


> 25 years ago, it was clear Unix was not much of a contender.  And Windows NT
> looked like a winner.


Not in any circle I traveled.

IMO Windows Server had just become the new Netware; fine to run an office
with, but not really much more scalable than that. I recall painfully how
one associate tried to install a local version of BES (Blackberry Server)
on a Windows box before giving up and going to the RIM-hosted service. It
just wasn't up to much challenging tasks.

But MS had marketing money, and Ballmer was into full-on Linux-bashing at
the time. The FUD campaigns were effective at slowing but not stopping the
shift. But NOBODY I knew was taking Windows server seriously as a server of
Internet-protocol-based stuff. If you were into, say, Sendmail or MySQL or
Apache you already knew that open source worked, so overcoming the FUD and
considering Linux for the plumbing was a no-brainer.

Aside: I recall being at a product launch from NEC for a line of
Intel-based Windows server boxes. Some salescritter boasted that they were
so confident of the superiority of Windows that the hardware was jigged so
that it COULDN'T run Linux (they were evasive explaining how that was done,
and I never pressed for an answer). Within a year NEC was out of the PC
hardware business completely; I was really hoping that some product
manager(s) lost their job over that bonehead move.

- Evan
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