To be fair in 2001 php was the underdog of tech stack. It has just got ride of the PHP (Personal Home Page) taste in the language mouth. So wouldn't be surprised if some company running solaris would kick him off.
Interesting. I remember php being on top at that time, with JSP just starting to take over. I was in a rural area, though, and our local developers were far more influential than any internet community during that period.