__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Thursday 23 February 2006 01:00 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Jerry McBride
> <mcbrides9@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:33:49 -0500
> <tv8vc3xtfe.ln2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060222/ap_on_hi_te/server_sales
>>>
>>> <quote>
>>> The numbers, released Tuesday, show the continuation of a trend
>>> toward servers based on commodity, or "x86," microprocessors from
>>> Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. They often run the freely
>>> distributed Linux operating system.
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> High-end servers based on non-x86 chips that run the Unix operating
>>> system saw shipments fall 5.3 percent with just a 0.5 percent increase
>>> in revenue, Hewitt said.
>>>
>>> "The replacement at the low end of this market with Linux servers
>>> and declines at the high end of the market are the reasons for
>>> these results," he (Jeffrey Hewitt) said.
>>> </quote>
>>>
>>> Believe it or not, Windows is not even mentioned in this report.
>>
>> Wow! Not only has windows lost the server race, Unix is taking a beating
>> also... Fantastic.
>>
>
> I for one am not too surprised. After all, if Linux is winning
> over Windows users based on cost in the business world, Linux will
> also win over Unix users based on cost there, too, at least for the
> lower end stuff (high-powered servers might tough it out for awhile).
>
> A bit like IBM PC clones in that respect; prices dropped, and everyone
> benefits -- at least in theory.
Well, from a more philosophical point of view, as soon as _less_ money
gets spent on software and less human labour gets invested in competitive,
commercial software development (OSS has competitiveness too, but rarely
re-invents the wheel owing to the GPL), more rigor could be put where is
matters.
Rather than employ 'box booters' (as Ballard refers to them) and AV devel-
opers, we could further explore and encourage research. The skills will
merely be channelled and software will be more self-maintaining. Develop-
ments in computing, such as quantom computing (hardware), new peripherals
(hardware again), physical methods of interaction and visualisation (hard-
ware e.g. [1]), will actually benefit more than a few people in Redmond.
They will benefit humanity and lead to technological progress that no
longer suffers from a monoculture that discourages innovation.
[1] http://news.com.com/2300-1008_3-6041767-1.html
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: 111111 X 111111 = 12345654321
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
4:20am up 5 days 16:39, 8 users, load average: 0.65, 0.59, 0.66
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
|
|
