It's not really a matter of Linux or BSD "winning" in the 90s. It wasn't the kernel and base system that was super important but what you could run it on and wh

It's not really a matter of Linux or BSD "winning" in the 90s. It wasn't the kernel and base system that was super important but what you could run it on and what you could run on it. A Free Unix(like) was an important base component but went hand in hand with FOSS software running on top. With the likes of Apache and Samba PCs running Linux (or a BSD) could replace many thousands of dollars in software licenses for server products for zero licensing dollars. It didn't really matter if the base OS was a BSD or Linux, as long as the services ran on top on relatively inexpensive hardware it was a massive win for a lot of organizations.