Market share of Xenix/UNIX (was: Re: MAIL TO INTERACTIVE)

[Jay Ts]

In article <1991Mar19.193429.5629 at kithrup.COM>, sef at kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) writes:
> In article <27E4D211.5B78 at tct.uucp> jim at tct.uucp (Jim Kunzman) writes:
> >Hmmm, a recent article in UNIX World stated that 80% of all installed
> >80x86 systems were SCO UNIX systems.  
> 
> I haven't read the article in question; however, from what I know of the
> figures, it should be:  80% of all 80x86 systems running *nix are running
> SCO XENIX (although I'm told that sco unix is starting to make its mark).

I find this figure interesting.  A few years ago, I remember being told or
reading (or both) that SCO had 95% of the UNIX/Xenix market.  That was on
the 286, just as 386 systems were starting to catch on.  Later, I heard/read
figures of 85-90%.  That was about a year later, when 386 systems were becoming
common.  So now we're down to 80%?

I don't know; I'm vulnerable to whatever I hear or read, but it seems that
Interactive and the other UNIX resellers have done quite well.  They were
first to put real UNIX on the PC, and have led SCO on that by a significant
time frame.

These factors are important, because a lot of Xenix 286 sites are looking
to upgrade to 386s, and understand that SCO may not want to support Xenix
much longer.  Well, SCO doesn't want to support Unix System V.4 either :-)
Because of this situation, many companies may migrate from Xenix 286 to
ISC, ESIX or some other vendor's UNIX.

I *really* wonder what the true figures are; how many systems out there are
SCO Xenix 286, Xenix 386, SCO UNIX, ISC UNIX, and other vendors' UNIX.  I
haven't seen any pie charts on *that* anywhere!

				Jay Ts, Director
				Metran Technology
				uunet!pdn!tscs!metran!jay