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> by 2005-ish Linux was already fairly dominant as a web server OS/platform. I lived through it, and I don't have any citation, but this is incorrect. Linux di

> by 2005-ish Linux was already fairly dominant as a web server OS/platform. I lived through it, and I don't have any citation, but this is incorrect. Linux did not take over the datacenter until 2011/12. In 2006, the main reason for Linux's existence was to fix the things Microsoft kept breaking, also, it was nice to revive older hardware that wouldn't perform with or run current OS versions. IBM actually tried to switch everything to Linux right around 2006, but en mass grey beard AIX system admins revolted, and IBM postponed the "migration." In 2006, Linux was just not mature or stable enough for big iron nor servers for popular websites, and Linux certainly wasn't dominant in any space in 2006, except maybe the dev hobbiest space.

pram 4y ago
I don’t agree at all. Linux was fairly ubiquitous even in the late 90s. For example the entire line of Cobalt server appliances were Linux based, and they were a favorite in colos and shared hosting.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  I looked after dozens of those, both the Raqs and the Qubes, in the earlyish 2000s. I want to say, about 2003-2004ish? The Raqs got through fans like crazy, for some reason. I think I went through all of the servers twice in two years.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > Linux was fairly ubiquitous Linux was not omnipresent in the late 90's, regardless of a single server appliance. It was only in 2007 that any major hardware vendor (Dell, HP) even announced it would ship w/ Linux preinstalled. By 2008, NetBSD still had about 50% of webserver space with 30% run on Windows Server. In 2008, Linux ran maybe about 20% of Internet webservers, regardless of Steve Balmer's claim (remember how big the Internet is, i.e. it does not only consist of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft... that is only 4 sites... there were 31M websites in 2008, and most of them still ran NetBSD). A lot of file servers ran on Linux, there was big data being stored on Linux by 2007, there was massive interest in Linux, but Linux was not all there was, and Linux really did not take over the datacenter, where nearly all the hardware ran Linux, until late 2011.
  - Gordonjcp 4y ago
    > there were 31M websites in 2008, and most of them still ran NetBSD Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
    - CRConrad 4y ago
      But the status quo is, pretty much by definition, not extraordinary. I also remember "common knowledge" of the era as "BSD standard, Linux up-and-coming". So where's your evidence for your extraordinary claim that this wasn't how it was?
stormbrew 4y ago
I think you're overstating a little here. There were definitely popular websites running on linux in 2006. I won't make any claim about dominance (it's too hard to find good data now and it's just a battle of memory at that point), but definitely some high rankers on alexa at the time were very much LAMP. Notably, I believe Facebook was LAMP, and was already becoming a pretty big force in 2006. It's hard to find a good citation for that, but it was my understanding at the time they were. I think it was pretty common among up-and-comer startups, really. Maybe not so much on the low or high end, which were still dominated by shared hosting and enterprise contracts at the time, respectively. Still, it's the year RHEL launched so things were changing.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Better said, the year Red-Hat realized there was no money on the Linux Desktop and pivoted into RHEL.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > There were definitely popular websites running on linux in 2006. There were about 32M websites in 2006. Nearly all of them were not running Linux. Not in 2006.
  - stormbrew 4y ago
    First of all, you said popular. Nearly all of those 32m websites were not popular by any useful definition of that word. At any rate, you’re definitely going to have to provide more than a stern tone to make me believe this is true as it’s either very at odds with my experience at the time or your definition of “nearly all” is very unusual. And finally, as another commenter suggested, if your idea is that this doesn’t also apply to netbsd (ie. nearly all servers weren’t netbsd) the i dunno what to tell you. Some kind of bsd maybe, but netbsd? I really don’t think so.
    - Maursault 4y ago
      No, I did not say "popular." It is quite simple. Linux took over in 2011. That is 5 years after 2006. We don't have to rewrite history to make Linux look better than it is. Absurd.
heywoodlh 4y ago
Well, regardless of any citations this is very interesting anecdotal experience. Thanks for sharing -- good to understand a bit more of the history there. It's interesting to learn more about previous timeframes in which I didn't have an IT career.

pram 4y ago

I don’t agree at all. Linux was fairly ubiquitous even in the late 90s. For example the entire line of Cobalt server appliances were Linux based, and they were a favorite in colos and shared hosting.

Gordonjcp 4y ago
I looked after dozens of those, both the Raqs and the Qubes, in the earlyish 2000s. I want to say, about 2003-2004ish? The Raqs got through fans like crazy, for some reason. I think I went through all of the servers twice in two years.
Maursault 4y ago
> Linux was fairly ubiquitous Linux was not omnipresent in the late 90's, regardless of a single server appliance. It was only in 2007 that any major hardware vendor (Dell, HP) even announced it would ship w/ Linux preinstalled. By 2008, NetBSD still had about 50% of webserver space with 30% run on Windows Server. In 2008, Linux ran maybe about 20% of Internet webservers, regardless of Steve Balmer's claim (remember how big the Internet is, i.e. it does not only consist of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft... that is only 4 sites... there were 31M websites in 2008, and most of them still ran NetBSD). A lot of file servers ran on Linux, there was big data being stored on Linux by 2007, there was massive interest in Linux, but Linux was not all there was, and Linux really did not take over the datacenter, where nearly all the hardware ran Linux, until late 2011.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  > there were 31M websites in 2008, and most of them still ran NetBSD Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
  - CRConrad 4y ago
    But the status quo is, pretty much by definition, not extraordinary. I also remember "common knowledge" of the era as "BSD standard, Linux up-and-coming". So where's your evidence for your extraordinary claim that this wasn't how it was?

stormbrew 4y ago

I think you're overstating a little here. There were definitely popular websites running on linux in 2006. I won't make any claim about dominance (it's too hard to find good data now and it's just a battle of memory at that point), but definitely some high rankers on alexa at the time were very much LAMP. Notably, I believe Facebook was LAMP, and was already becoming a pretty big force in 2006. It's hard to find a good citation for that, but it was my understanding at the time they were. I think it was pretty common among up-and-comer startups, really. Maybe not so much on the low or high end, which were still dominated by shared hosting and enterprise contracts at the time, respectively. Still, it's the year RHEL launched so things were changing.

pjmlp 4y ago
Better said, the year Red-Hat realized there was no money on the Linux Desktop and pivoted into RHEL.
Maursault 4y ago
> There were definitely popular websites running on linux in 2006. There were about 32M websites in 2006. Nearly all of them were not running Linux. Not in 2006.
- stormbrew 4y ago
  First of all, you said popular. Nearly all of those 32m websites were not popular by any useful definition of that word. At any rate, you’re definitely going to have to provide more than a stern tone to make me believe this is true as it’s either very at odds with my experience at the time or your definition of “nearly all” is very unusual. And finally, as another commenter suggested, if your idea is that this doesn’t also apply to netbsd (ie. nearly all servers weren’t netbsd) the i dunno what to tell you. Some kind of bsd maybe, but netbsd? I really don’t think so.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    No, I did not say "popular." It is quite simple. Linux took over in 2011. That is 5 years after 2006. We don't have to rewrite history to make Linux look better than it is. Absurd.

heywoodlh 4y ago

Well, regardless of any citations this is very interesting anecdotal experience. Thanks for sharing -- good to understand a bit more of the history there. It's interesting to learn more about previous timeframes in which I didn't have an IT career.