Operating Environment Definitions

All software revenue is allocated on the basis of the underlying operating environment. The preferred method is to allocate revenue to operating environments based on where the license revenue is derived (for platform-specific licenses). An alternative method is to allocate revenue based on where the product is run (i.e., based on the percentage of executables on various platforms). Operating environments include the following:

› Mainframe environments include IBM's z/OS, OS/390, VSE, VM, and z/VM that run on IBM zSeries hardware and other single-vendor mainframe operating systems such as those from Unisys, Amdahl, Fujitsu, and Hitachi. Single-vendor, non-Unix supercomputer and massively parallel processor environments are also included in the mainframe category.

› i5 and OS/400 include i5, OS/400, and predecessors that operate aboard IBM 3X, AS/400, and the iSeries family of machines.

› Unix includes all operating systems software that is based on Unix System V, OSF/1, or Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). This category would include products such as AIX, HP-UX, Irix, SCO Open Server, SCO UnixWare, Solaris, Tru64 Unix, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and other operating systems used primarily aboard RISC-based and Intel architecture–based servers, workstations, minicomputers, and clients that are designed to run the Unix operating system. Unix-based supercomputer and massively parallel processor environments are also included in this category. Operating systems that are based on other kernels are not included even if they have passed the Unix certification test from the Open Group.

› Linux and other open source environments include all operating systems deployed aboard servers, workstations, minicomputers, and clients that are based on Linux or other Unix-like open source operating environments. Typically, this software is available both commercially with associated support and maintenance costs and at little or no cost in source code form. Software of this type is usually licensed under the Free Software Foundation's general-purpose license (GPL) or other licensing that encourages free access to the source code to these operating environments.

› Other host/server environments include all other operating systems that are used as either host or server environments aboard server hardware systems. Some examples of operating systems in this category are HP OpenVMS, IBM OS/2, and Novell NetWare, as well as residual revenue associated with discontinued operating systems, such as HP MPE/iX.

› Windows 32 and 64 include all operating systems that support the Win32 APIs and Win64 APIs, including Microsoft's Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT Workstation, all versions of Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Professional, all versions of Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, and all editions of Windows Server 2003, including the release 2 (R2) versions.

› Embedded operating environments and related subsystems include commercially available products that incorporate the machine-level instructions and general-purpose functions that control the operation and use of CPU resources in smart, embedded, and limited-function devices. Embedded operating environments may either offer some form of a user interface (graphical, text, voice, or other) or include the required services or APIs to allow developers to build their own interface if so required. These environments generally include defined and documented APIs that can be used by application software, which in turn is created by related application development tools. Embedded operating environment products may include both source code and executable/runtime code, or just executable/runtime code, and may offer either real-time or non–real time operational characteristics. Real time is defined as the ability for the system to respond in a predetermined time to scheduled or interrupt-driven events. Non–real time is defined as the ability for the system to respond rapidly enough to respond in less than a second to network or user input. Embedded operating environments tracked by IDC might be specialized versions of general-purpose operating systems (such as Linux and Windows XP Embedded), but must be commercially available. Embedded operating environments tracked by IDC include Windows CE, Linux, Palm OS, EPOC, LynxOS, VxWorks, QNX, and Nucleus. Special-purpose embedded operating environments that are not commercially available but are integrated into a commercially available hardware product (e.g., Nintendo GameBoys, industrial control systems, certain automotive control systems, and so forth) are specifically excluded because the operating system is not available exclusive of the underlying hardware product.

› Other single-user operating environments include all other operating systems that are used as client or standalone environments. Some examples of operating systems in this category are 16-bit Windows and DOS (including MS-DOS, PC-DOS, and DR-DOS), OS/2, and non-Unix versions of Mac OS (generally Mac OS 9.x and earlier).

› Appliances consist of hardware with an integtated, hardened operating system, a limited applications set, and no user software installation. Appliances differ from pure embedded operating systems in that the operating system used in an appliance is typically a hardware-specific, special purpose operating system that is not commercially available on a stand alone basis from the appliance vendor. However, in some cases, an appliance may be constructed utilizing an embedded operating system that is commercially available from another vendor. Examples of such a configuration includes a storage server built using Windows Storage Server 2003, and a firewall appliance built upon an embedded version of Windows Server 2003, or a security or networking device built using an embedded version of Linux from (for example) Montavista Software or Red Hat. In most cases, appliance devices integrate operating system application software together with application functionality, security management, policy management, quality of service, load balancing, high availability, and bandwidth management. Like the operating system itself, this layered software is in most cases unique and specific to the appliance – and not commercially available independent from the appliance itself. However, in certain cases, the layered software may be commercially available from the firm that produced the software. For instance, a security or storage appliance based on an embedded version of the Windows  operating system may also incorporate certain layered commercial software products from Microsoft. In this context, commercially available operating systems (embedded or general purpose) and commercially available layered software products that are integrated in appliance devices will continue to be tracked in IDC's pure software market segments in addition to being tracked as part of the appliance device. This tracking methodology does not lead to double-counting because appliance revenue can not be combined with pure software revenue due to the differing taxonomical definitions describing these market segments.