Linux servers outsold Unix boxes in 2002

A REPORT said that the biggest manufacturers of servers kept their old positions but the good news for the people that make the chips is that the market showed clear signs of growth.

According to iSuppli, 72 per cent of all servers shipped in 2002 were supplied by Hewlett Packard, Dell, IBM and Sun.

And of these four, three increased their shipments in last year, with only HP being the runt of the litter.

iSuppli attributes that to "teething pains" after it took over Compaq.

Nevertheless, despite the grip the big four retain on the market, Others Inc, that is to say the white box makers, managed to grow their presence in 2002 as well.

There were some big changes in operating systems shipped, claimed iSuppli. Linux OSes outsold Unix servers for the first time, and grabbed 15.5 per cent of software shipped, a growth from the previous year's 10.1 per cent.

Nevertheless Bill Gates' "Winders" operating system still has a huge chink of the market. Linux, said the firm, is now a big part of the high volume entry level server market because of its low cost and its "similarities" to Unix as far as tools, utilities, configs and operating procedues go.

The market research company said it sees server units continuing to grow throughout this year. µ

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iSuppli