On Tuesday 12 March 2013 23:45, Peter Chant conveyed the following to
alt.os.linux.slackware...
> On 03/04/2013 03:22 AM, Vlad D. Markov wrote:
>
>> The desktop Wintel monopoly doesn't bother me as much as the
>> Intel monopoly on the server.
Intel doesn't really have a monopoly there. AMD is just as strong in
the server rooms, and in certain ways technologically better than Intel.
Yes, I know, it's all x86-64, but don't forget that Intel is currently
licensing the AMD64 patent (which they are still rebranding as EM64T),
as their original (Netburst) EM64T technology didn't work as expected.
>> There used to be other chips, and other Operating systems besides
>> Unix and Windows (I include Linux with Unix). Seems like a duopoly
>> built on a monopoly to me.
Chip-wise, the IBM PPC is still around, and of course so is the Sun
UltraSPARC (now owned by Oracle). SGI MIPS is also still around, albeit
to a lesser degree, but at the same time, the Chinese have developed a
new processor called Longsoon, which is based upon MIPS, and which is
already in use in both servers (and even supercomputers) on the one
hand, and workstations and laptops/notebooks on the other hand.
In fact, Richard Stallman only owns one computer, which is a notebook
powered by a Longsoon processor. One of the reasons why he picked that
is because all of its hardware is capable of working without requiring
binary firmware blobs.
On account of operating systems, OpenVMS still owns part of the server
market. Novell on the other hand has ported most of the technology from
Netware over to UNIX via SuSE, and its proprietary IPX/SPX protocol,
although still supported, has been supplanted now by the far more widely
spread TCP/IP.
The reason why UNIX - in which I also include GNU/Linux and the various
BSDs - is so popular in the server rooms is because it is a very robust,
flexible, scalable, portable and especially open and standards-compliant
operating system design, and the fact that both GNU/Linux and the BSDs
are Free Software allows for very cost-effective development of server
applications and deployment of server farms and networks.
IT businesses can reserve their proprietary UNIX versions for their own
proprietary hardware architectures and they don't have to invest any
resources in the development of the operating system itself, as that is
all being done for them across the internet by many more developers than
they can ever hope to put on their payroll. Both GNU/Linux and the BSDs
have already long proved their reliability and quality, and so it's more
interesting to companies like e.g. IBM to dedicate a few developers to
supporting the further development of the Linux kernel than for them to
have to port and test their own proprietary UNIX to the x86(-64)
architecture.
The future of proprietary UNIX is uncertain, though. One the one hand
it is gradually being phased out in favor of mainly GNU/Linux (and to a
lesser degree the BSDs), and on the other hand, I believe we are
currently in the eye of a big storm...
See, in the litigation between SCO and Novell, it was ruled by the court
that Novell was the legitimate owner of the AT&T Unix patents, but
Novell has in the meantime been sold to Attachmate, and its patent
portfolio to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium led by Microsoft.
It is my firm belief and expectation that Microsoft - who were
financially sponsoring SCO in its litigations against IBM and Novell on
at least three occasions, of which twice via a sock puppet company and
once directly - are squatting on the opportunity to get hold of those
UNIX patents, if not for the sake of once again starting some patent-
trolling [*] litigation with GNU/Linux as the target, then at the very
least to kill off UNIX and pave the way for a takeover of the server
rooms. After what they've done with UEFI on account of the x86-64
platform and ARM, I would be very surprised if they weren't to jump on
this opportunity as well.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Microsoft is not after the
money. That's what everyone thinks, but the money is only a red
herring. What Microsoft is after is the monopoly and the power that
comes with it.
[*] They have already been patent-trolling for ages, but up until a
few years ago, they had always been doing it via sock puppets,
such as the lawyer firm of Bill Gates's father or via Paul Allen
personally, or some other corporate Microsoft asset. Nowadays,
they seem very much in the business of patent-trolling under their
own name, to which end they are frantically buying up lots of
patent portfolios, and Microsoft's business competitors such as
Google are doing the exact same thing. Not that I trust Google,
but Google is fighting two wars at the same time: they're fighting
Microsoft and they're also fighting Apple.
> It will be interesting to see if arm based servers get any traction,
> especially with Arm64 on the cards. I don't work in that industry
> however so I've not got a good view of the implications.
There will definitely be server-based ARM64 implementations, but
although ARM64 has some interesting prospects, it does at the same time
also lack several technologies which are present in modern-day x86-64,
such as hardware-assisted virtualization support. Given the growing
popularity of "the cloud" - even if it only turns out a temporary hype
until the next "best thing ever" comes along - this is an important and
much-desired piece of technology today.
I therefore suspect that ARM64 will probably be deployed in the
construction of supercomputers and possibly also in rendering farms, but
it probably won't gain much ground in other areas than the embedded
devices market.
--
= Aragorn =
http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157