“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…?”