Linux Online - SuSE infuses Blue blood into Linux

SuSE infuses Blue blood into Linux


		Date:	Mar 24 2002

So where does SuSE fit into the picture? The open source nature of Linux gives IBM a chance to bend an OS that it doesn't own around its other intellectual property. This option is not readily available with Windows or Java. Windows is under the tight grip of Microsoft . Java is theoretically "bendable" through participation in the Java Community Process, but that still doesn't compare to how easy it is to get Linux running on IBM mainframes the way Big Blue wants. Who's going to argue -- especially when IBM open sources all the code to make it work? While IBM open sourced the code to run Linux on its various systems, it doesn't actually sell its own distribution of Linux. IBM has left it up to other distributors to pick up that open source, incorporate it into their distributions, and compete by offering something special beyond the code itself.