Linux Server Revenues Grow, but Unix Still has More Share

From the ‘More Unix Share Left to Take’ files:

Ever since, I first started with Linux in the late 90’s, I’ve been hearing Linux vendors tell me the opportunity is in taking share from Unix.

Over the years, Linux certainly has taken a whole lot of share from Unix, but as it turns out, there is still room to go.

According to IDC’s Q3 2011 Server stats, Linux server revenues for the quarter grew to $2.3 billion. That’s a 12.3 percent year-over-year gain. Overall, Linux holds an 18.6 share of total server revenues.

Not too shabby.

In contrast, Unix server sales hit $2.6 for the third quarter, growing at a significantly slower rate than Linux of only 1.6 percnetyear-over-year growth. Unix server revenues hold 20.1 percent of global server revenues.

So to recap: Linux is still growing fast than Unix, but Unix revenues are still higher and hold a larger percentage of total server revenues. Considering that Unix server (in nearly all cases) cost more than x86 based Linux ones, this isn’t a terrible surprise.

What is interesting to note though is that after a decade of chipping away at Unix’s market share, the way I see the numbers trending, Linux will surpass Unix, sooner rather than later.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist