“Graying nerds who recall the Balkanization of Unix into a slew
of incompatible operating systems may be reliving history with the
proliferation of Linux brands.”
“Just as Unix once promised to be the lingua franca of open
systems, the Linux operating system, itself a variant of Unix, has
been held out as standard for the open-source movement. But there
is growing concern that just as the Unix world slid into chaos like
a modern Tower of Babel, the commercialization of Linux will lead
to systems that cannot understand each other.”
“Open systems promised to free computer users from the software
tyranny of hardware systems like the IBM’s mainframes and the
Digital Equipment’s minicomputers.”