I&#x27;ve read that &quot;sourceware&quot; article before, in the distant past when it was still a roughly accurate picture of the market (maybe 1995 or 1996). It&#x27;s weird to read it again now, in a world that is so remarkably changed. Linux, the scrappy little upstart with a million or so users at the time of the paper, is now the most popular OS (or at least kernel) on the planet, powering billions of phones and servers. NT was viewed as the unfortunate but inevitable future of server operating systems.<p>I remember looking at IT jobs back then, and seeing a business world covered in Windows NT machines; I even got my MCSE (alongside some UNIX certifications that I was more excited about), because of it. Looking at jobs now, the difference is remarkable, to say the least. Nearly every core technology a system administrator needs to know is Open Source and almost certainly running on Linux.<p>And, the funny thing is that the general prescription (make a great Open Source UNIX) is exactly what it took to save UNIX. It just didn&#x27;t involve any of the big UNIX vendors in a significant way (the ones spending a gazillion dollars on UNIX development at the time). Linux got better faster than Sun got smarter, and ate everybody&#x27;s lunch, including Microsoft. Innovator&#x27;s Dilemma strikes again.<p>Apple is an interesting blip on the UNIX history radar, too...though, they&#x27;re likely to lose to the same market forces in the end, as phones become commodities. I&#x27;m a bit concerned that it&#x27;s going to be Android, however, that wins the mobile world since Android is nowhere near the ideal OS from an Open Source and ethical perspective; but, I guess they got the bits right that Larry was suggesting needed to be right.<p>Anyway, it was a weird flashback to read that article. Things change, and on a scale that seems slow, until you look back on it, and see it&#x27;s &quot;only&quot; been a couple of decades. In the grand scheme of things, and compared to the motion of technology prior to the 1900, that&#x27;s a blink of an eye.