Server OS wars: Linux and .Net to trounce Unix

The future is anything but bright for proprietary Unix operating systems. According to a new report, flavours of Unix from the main vendors - hardware heavyweights HP, IBM and Sun - will lose out to Linux, and even Microsoft's emerging .Net.

In its Server Operating Systems - Winners and Losers in the Open/Proprietary OS Market report, Butler Group backs the two-pronged Linux and Microsoft market.

Linux is "the long-term winner by a knockout", with .Net "outperforming between 2005 and 2008".

Over the next three years Linux will rapidly penetrate file and print servers, typically replacing Windows NT, low-end servers will move to Linux, and high-end servers will eventually move to .Net and Linux.

Butler Group believes there will a move away from proprietary operating systems towards open environments where IT managers can have more control.

The forecast is arguably most worrying for Sun. Out of the large server companies it has given the least backing to Linux. Most hardware companies are hedging their bets with the open source OS, a single flavour of Unix and often Windows too.

Butler Group concluded: "In the long term, 2009 onwards, Linux is the winner with .Net runner-up."

In other research today, from analysts at IDC, Microsoft's Windows OS was judged to have a lower total cost of ownership to Linux.