You’re correct on Linux’s (and I would argue SunOS’s) dominance as a web server being the major factor, but Apple helped the popularize slick Unix workstations for developers, allowing us to live in Unix at a time when it was rarely possible to convince IT depts to support Linux on the desktop. This goes back to the eighties if you retroactively fold NeXT into the Apple lineage. Even though NeXTSTEP was never very popular in industry, it gained a substantial footprint in academia, and had an outsized impact on the internet. Berners-Lee even developed the web on a NeXTStation.
This early OS X ad shows how important continuing to serve and develop this market was for Apple:
This early OS X ad shows how important continuing to serve and develop this market was for Apple:
http://www.mackungfu.org/dump/apple_unix_ad.jpg