“Sometimes lost amidst the nastiness being flung these days
between advocates of Linux and supporters of Microsoft operating
systems, is the extremely strange relationship that exists between
vendors of Linux and vendors of conventional Unix operating
systems. To say this relationship is both strange and volatile is
an understatement — sometimes overnight the mood switches from a
love-in to a shoot-out.”
“The latest case in point is the switcheroo in Netscape’s
approach to Linux. Back in mid-1998, Netscape’s original
announcement of Linux support made it one of the first mainstream
computing companies to jump into the Linux world. Even then its
involvement was deep, as it created two significant open source
projects. The Mozilla project aims to make a next-generation
browser, and the Open Directory Project, while lesser known, is an
ambitious attempt to apply open source philosophies to a Yahoo-type
portal site. As if to hammer the point home, Netscape even bought a
small piece of Red Hat.”