"In its quest to sell more blue boxes, IBM long ago made the choice to sell and support Linux servers alongside AIX machines. So far, it seems to have worked for Big Blue, but like any arrangement, there is always room for improvement.
"IBM's two big competitors in the mid- to large-server range are HP and Sun, which also offer Linux servers with their native Unix (HP-UX and Solaris, respectively) versions. These combatants also share another common trait: They each sell Intel-based servers and their own specialty platforms. HP sells PA-RISC- and Itanium-based machines; Sun touts SPARC and x86 boxes; and IBM peddles RISC-based POWER and--oh, wait a minute IBM doesn't sell Intel chips, does it...?"
