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None of the suits cared about Linux in the early days when we sysadmins were extolling it's benefits. The idea that Linux could ever take on commercial Unix off
by corinroyal 3y ago
None of the suits cared about Linux in the early days when we sysadmins were extolling it's benefits. The idea that Linux could ever take on commercial Unix offerings from companies like IBM was laughable. It's so strange to me that the argument that suits don't care what geeks think is still being made. Current users will stick with Red Hat until they fear they won't be able to hire for it. But that's what happened to AIX and why IBM bought Red Hat in the first place.
- tredre3 3y agoLinux did not win on technical merits back then (it wasn't very good). It did not win because its geeky simps pushed it. It won because it was cheaper, good enough, and (more importantly) another company (Red Hat!, Caldera) was willing to walk you through compliance, offer support, and take the blame if shit went sideways. Maybe your experience was true for your company. But it feels like revisionism to me, a fellow 90s Linux professional who introduced it to many orgs.
- tomwheeler 3y agoI was there when Linux overtook proprietary UNIX in the late 1990s / early 2000s and agree completely. The Solaris and HP/UX stalwarts who laughed Linux off as a toy for hobbyists changed their tune pretty quickly when Oracle announced support for their flagship database on Linux. Adoption quickly accelerated as other software vendors announced support. Obviously Red Hat was the winner in all of this, but they could easily lose their lead if another Linux vendor gets serious.