Linux gains ground on aging Unix

[dArKeR]

Geo. H. Young and Co. Ltd. began experimenting with the Linux operating system six years ago, and the Winnipeg-based customs brokerage firm has been expanding its use of Linux ever since.

According to popular wisdom in the software market these days, it's a move that might seem to pose yet another threat to the dominance of Microsoft's Windows operating system. But in GHY's case, as with many companies with demanding computer workloads, the transition is also part of a quieter trend: a retreat from Unix...

Unix is one of the oldest computer operating systems, the basic code that drives the circuitry on millions of corporate and scientific-research computers around the world. It's also seen to be one of the most reliable. Developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s at AT&T's famed Bell Laboratories, it was distributed freely to universities for educational use and licensed to several companies.

http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030828.gttwunix28/BNStory/Technology/

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[mike_c]

1. I have one laptop with WinXP on it...

...that I think of as a "legacy computer,", but all the other computers in my home, office, and lab are x86 PC's running Linux. Ok, a couple of dual-boot machines, but the Windows disks are RARELY booted (like once annually, just to see if they still work). When I had to make a choice between Sun workstations running Solaris and Gateway PC's running Linux (no help from Gateway, thank you very much), the economics were strongly in favor of Linux (MS operating systems need not even apply). I work in a computing intensive environment, with MANY platforms to choose from, but x86 Linux rocks above them all, for scientific computing, general office work (sometimes with an MS emulator) and as a development platform. The future belongs to Linux, or MAYBE the HURD.