“I always find stories like these humorous. Why? Because the
assumption is that Linux is just another business like all the big
name software is now. People try so hard to fit Linux into their
pre-concieved notion of how software has been developed, that they
don’t understand how Linux intends to (and in many ways already
has) break out of that mold.”
“Linux isn’t a singular business. It doesn’t depend on R&D
money nearly as much as software businesses. It depends on users
creating software, which bring in more users/developers, which
create more software, which bring in more….”
“This process started slowly, and continued to increase. Yes,
some commercial companies have taken interest, but the underlying
OS and a lot of the software that runs on it are still based on the
Open Source/Free Software ideals that launched and maintained it up
to now. Linux isn’t Windows. Linux isn’t Microsoft. They are
nothing like each other. Linux has a large following and that
isn’t going to go away. The chicken and the egg problem is strictly
a concern for the commercial businesses that are into Linux. Some
of them may fail before Linux truly makes it to the top, but Linux
isn’t going to disappear because a few of the companies interested
in it do.“