News

Netcraft: Solaris Most Common OS for Fortune 100 Web Sites

• By Scott Bekker
• November 16, 2004

To mark the occasion of the debut of Sun Solaris 10 this week, Web researchers at Netcraft released the results of their latest survey of Fortune 100 Web sites. Their finding: Sun Solaris still leads with 43 sites.

Surveying the operating systems and Web servers running the Web sites of the largest U.S. companies is a common way to assess the relative success of the platforms.

Netcraft found that 43 of the sites are run on the Sun Solaris operating system. Of those, 32 run Solaris 8, four run Solaris 9 and seven are running some other version of Solaris. The large Solaris customers include Viacom, Boeing, Sears, Bank of America, AT&T, Cisco, Wachovia, Procter & Gamble and Lockheed Martin.

For comparison, Windows servers run the Web sites of 32 companies in the Fortune 100 list and Linux runs the sites of a dozen companies. Windows Server 2003 customers include TXU, Microsoft, Intel and EDS. Windows 2000-based sites include ExxonMobil, Merrill Lynch and Bank One. Kroger is the only Fortune 100 company running a site on Windows NT/98. Netcraft's method can't differentiate between Windows NT and Windows 98.

Prominent Linux customers include Disney, GM, Merck, Verizon and American Express.

Solaris' position in the Fortune 100 is very similar to its results in similar surveys in years past. Typically, Solaris holds a lead through the Fortune 100. Looking at the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 finds Microsoft Windows with the largest share. Going further out to include all Web hosting companies and all Web sites, Linux becomes the leader.

Solaris 10 is scheduled to be generally available in January.