IBM had developed OS/2, but was unable to effectively market it, in large part due to the intransigence of its development partner, Microsoft, who had other designs.
Microsoft was of course pushing Windows NT as the full and total replacement for Unix at the mid-server level. I'd actually bought that as my own first personal computer OS, and found it utterly and totally inadequate. Installing Redhat from a bookstore CD started me on my path (though I'd previously used Unix at uni and various jobs).
AT&T were busily suing the crap out of BSD over 1-800-ITS-UNIX, and losing, but setting back both commercial and BSD Unix by about 4-5 years.
Linux emerged during this period under constant FUD assaults by Microsoft, most of the mainstream Unix vendors, and pretty much everyone else.
And Apple was very much in its Dark Age, with OSX (Now MacOS) not due for release until 2002.
Unix was in use, especially in technical shops: scientific, software design, areospace, chips, etc. But it was deprecated in much of the corporate world over mainframes, minis (I cut my professional teeth on VMS), and early Microsoft variants. AS/400 was more an industrial and controls system.
And yes, proliferation of somewhat incompatible Unix variants (and how and/or where you installed the GNU toolchain on same) was another question.
That's not what I was trying to communicate. Rather that the options for online systems were generally: Mainframe, Mini (usually DEC), or Unix. Also, this was pre-Web "online", meaning for the most part in-house processing support.
I can attest to at least one case of VMS being retained in favour of Unix, which was retired. In the mid-1990s.
The vendors were fighting amongst themselves for supremacy. Take a look at Larry McVoy's "Free Unix" whitepaper.
https://www.landley.net/history/mirror/unix/srcos.html
IBM had developed OS/2, but was unable to effectively market it, in large part due to the intransigence of its development partner, Microsoft, who had other designs.
Microsoft was of course pushing Windows NT as the full and total replacement for Unix at the mid-server level. I'd actually bought that as my own first personal computer OS, and found it utterly and totally inadequate. Installing Redhat from a bookstore CD started me on my path (though I'd previously used Unix at uni and various jobs).
AT&T were busily suing the crap out of BSD over 1-800-ITS-UNIX, and losing, but setting back both commercial and BSD Unix by about 4-5 years.
Linux emerged during this period under constant FUD assaults by Microsoft, most of the mainstream Unix vendors, and pretty much everyone else.
And Apple was very much in its Dark Age, with OSX (Now MacOS) not due for release until 2002.
Unix was in use, especially in technical shops: scientific, software design, areospace, chips, etc. But it was deprecated in much of the corporate world over mainframes, minis (I cut my professional teeth on VMS), and early Microsoft variants. AS/400 was more an industrial and controls system.
And yes, proliferation of somewhat incompatible Unix variants (and how and/or where you installed the GNU toolchain on same) was another question.