btb@hogpc.UUCP (B.BURGER) (10/03/84)
[Bzzzz]
Bill Tuthill uses figures about the installed base of UNIX systems
to analyze what versions of UNIX* (System V, XENIX, etc.) will
be popular in the future. A few reminders on getting from here to there:
1) Don't confuse UNIX *systems* (which most data describe) with
*users*. As an analogy, there are a lot of MS-DOS systems,
but only about 1 user per system.
2) The installed base of an OS depends on (primarily):
- how good it is
- how good the hardware on which it runs is
- how long it's been sold, and how well
- how much good software runs under it (there bidrectional
causality here)
Since System V hasn't been on the market long, one wouldn't expect it
to have a big share yet.
3) The future popularity of an OS -- which commercial software developers
have to predict -- depends on similar factors, but looking toward
the future instead of the past. Thus you should consider
which versions of UNIX will be supported best.
--Bruce Burger AT&T-Information Systems Freehold, NJ
{...ihnp4!}hogpc!btb
* UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratorieshenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/04/84)
> ... Thus you should consider > which versions of UNIX will be supported best. And also remember not to confuse effort with results in the support area. To my mind, the old style of AT&T/Bell support -- i.e., none -- was the best. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry