With Linux being what a standard version of UNIX could have been!
  SGI contributes XFS, IBM contributes JFS,
  Sun an improved Gnome Desktop....HP ??

  All the best bits of the various UNIX versions will get merged into one!
  Where this ends will be very interesting!

Funnily enough, I am engaged in a similar debate with a particularly
pointy-haired customer, who has gone so far as to suggest that they will
not consider any commercial software for infrastructure use any more if
there is an open-source equivalent. However, they don't seem to have the
mental capacity to understand that just because something is in the same
category as an existing commercial product with 20 years' development
behind it, that it might not be a fully-function, fully equivalent
replacement.

So now they compare all the open-source application servers with each other
and then choose JBOSS. They haven't even looked at Weblogic or <shudder>
WebSphere, so they may be missing out on some vital features and
functionality, just because they want to save on licensing costs.

I'm also sceptical at this stage how good a business model this
maintenance-only approach is. So if you go wall-to-wall open source and one
or more of your vendors folds because of financial reasons, you have the
code, but then you have to divert half your business into maintaining a
piece of software that isn't essential to your business, instead of helping
your business to make money.

Still, what do I know?

Beneficial to IBM?  When Big Corporations start investing in Linux
infrastructure and Linux support, I'd have to say "very".

Beneficial to me?  When Strategic Linux Partners start contributing
back to the pool of Free Software, I'd have to say "very".

It can be a win/win situation if both were to happen.

Of course, BCs and SLPs can always attempt to steal Linux (like
Linksys and SCO are trying to do) and nobody wins.