At the time in question, NT Server was a real threat. Commercial unixes were expensive to get and worse to maintain. NT Server was (by most accounts) TERRIBLE

At the time in question, NT Server was a real threat. Commercial unixes were expensive to get and worse to maintain. NT Server was (by most accounts) TERRIBLE, yet as servers became more mainstream, NT Server (and IIS) became more common because alternatives weren't considered viable. Heck, even Linux success was often contrary to the expectations from above. Plenty of articles in the 90s covered how techies would install Linux in secret because had it been known they'd have been told to use NT. Meanwhile, on the desktop Microsoft literally invested in Apple to prop up the idea that they had competition. Had Microsoft not done so, and they likely would not have had they not been afraid of antiitrust concerns, would Apple have survived to become the behemoth it is today? Does anyone think that NeXtStep, however nice their work, would have been even a speed bump to MS?