My understanding is that IBM is going with the "linux as little brother to our OS" approach too. They intend to have their own OS (replacing AIX) that'l run on merced (and a bunch of other chips... !!) for super-high end machines and recomend linux for the not-quite-so-high-end stuff.
This doesn't bother me, frankly. They intend to support binary compatibility w/ linux binaries, etc. And so long as linux is around and not subjected to overpowering FUD (a little FUD is ok...) it will grow or not on its own merits. One of linux's greatest strengths is that it isn't subject to the market in the same way other OS's are.
Re:Conflict of interest (Score:1)
This doesn't bother me, frankly. They intend to support binary compatibility w/ linux binaries, etc. And so long as linux is around and not subjected to overpowering FUD (a little FUD is ok...) it will grow or not on its own merits. One of linux's greatest strengths is that it isn't subject to the market in the same way other OS's are.