Thanks to Marty for this
link.
“As the upstart software continues to gain fans, there’s an
increasing need to keep it from splintering, Unix-style, into a
mess of incompatible variations.”
“As Linux enthusiasts gather at a conference in San Jose next
week to celebrate the software’s unlikely invasion of the
commercial computer world, a small group of technical gurus is
working to solve a problem that could stop the progress of Linux
dead in its tracks.”
“In short, there’s a real danger that Linux could splinter into
an array of slightly different versions. That’s exactly what
happened to Unix, the older operating system from which Linux
sprang. Software written for one version of Unix – say, Silicon
Graphics’ Irix, – often doesn’t run on another – say, Hewlett
Packard’s HP-UX. That incompatibility has helped Microsoft’s
Windows NT capture a huge piece of the corporate computing market –
almost a third of the dollars spent on server software in 1998.
It’s a trend the Linux community doesn’t want to repeat.”