Is Unix on Borrowed Time?

[the_JinX]

<offtopic>
nyx : I think they (lindows) stopped supporting windows apps.. http://lindows.com/mswindows
</offtopic>

These kind of FUD articles have been around for ages !!
I think the rumours of unix's death will never die, allong with unix!

[er0k]

Originally posted here by SmokeyDragon
I think nothing will kill unix i think it will be around for a few more years

well by saying it will be around for a few more years thats giving it a death sentence right there, if itll be around for only a few more years, then it must have died somehow?

[DigitalReligion]

Unix will definately be around for atleast another 5+ years.

My dad works on hospital software consulting (used to work for a company that sold the apps) and all of their software is Unix based. The reason no one is upgrading is because it costs multi-millions of dollars to purchase a new system and software which the hospitals don't have at this time and in this state of the economy.

Thats only one instance of dependence on Unix...

[cutty]

If by some chance someone can walk to all Unix users and convince them to change over then maybe then Unix will die but that's not how the world works.

There are too many corporations out there that use Unix for it to just die. In fact, IMO I believe Unix will never die. Their will always be a use for it and some people will never let it go and besides it's stable so why do away with it. "If something is not broken don't fix it."

Windows on the other hand have a big surprise coming to them in the near future. I can't say I would hate to see them go if they do go but they are putting up a good fight.

Just my thoughts on things...

[draziw]

*sigh* Well, I think Cutty's about the closest, here, IMO... ever since the day that full-time, dedicated TCP/IP connections became more common-place (read: long before things like cable modems and DSL and similar -- and the world wide web didn't exist yet), it seems like people have been predicting the "imminent death of the Internet." Well, I think we all know how close that is to reality...

In much the same vain, the death of UN*X is like saying that "swamp coolers" are going to be the wave of the future and no one's going to be buying central air conditioning anymore because it's "too expensive." (or even that the American car market is going to fall to the Japanese -- though I think that has a better chance of becoming reality that any of these other pipe dreams). Usually these rumors seem to be propagated by a bunch of n00bs who've "just discovered the k00lest thang" and it's going to take over the world... (any Pinky and the Brain fans? hehe)

First of all, I think Linux is only a step closer to "production quality" than your average MS box... and only a step more secure, on average. That, alone, will keep serious corporations from making major investments in (insert random flavor of Linux here) -- you simply can't run a business on something that you'll spend countless hours of maintenance on, just trying to keep it secure and/or even up and running. Yeah, I know, it's possible... and I know that a few have tried, but nothing's seemingly taken off in the commerical linux realm... then again, Sun, HP and IBM (for example) are having their own sets of issues, too.

I guess, in the short term, I think the only thing Linux is going to bite in to is the MS World (go Linus!) -- and even then, the only UN*X in danger there, it seems... is Linux (thanks to MS' new subsidiary in Santa Cruz... *smirk*)