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UNIX in the 1990s-2002 - Was SCO the Market Leader? - Members Only

By Pamela Jones et al.

As you know, I've been going through all our records during a lull in SCO activity, trying to get Groklaw caught up so we can complete our preservation work. And we're making some progress.

Here's something. I found a 2001 DH Brown comparative technical assessment of Unix players. Guess who was the UNIX leader? Sun Solaris won that year. HP won the following year. So exactly how is SCO a market leader in the first wave of UNIX beginning in the 1990s, as SCO alleged in its recent Disclosure Statement in its bankruptcy, followed by Linux in the next wave? IBM references SCO's claims on page 18 of IBM's Objections [PDF] to SCO's Motion to Approve Disclosure Statement. IBM quotes SCO:

If one were to think about the landscape of UNIX-based application platforms, SCO would be the clear leader in the first wave with 43% market share in the 1990s. The second wave would see Linux at the forefront being led by IBM.

SCO's UnixWare came in dead last overall, as I'll show you in some screen shots I took for you, because the 2001 DH Brown report is no longer available online, that I could find. At the time, the executive summary was free to the public. But you know me and copyright law. I try to be a good do-be, so I'll just show you just some fair use bits and pieces. You can purchase the complete report from DH Brown. So, fair warning to those of you on dial up -- graphics ahoy!

Full post as published by Groklaw on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).