Linux is being set up as Oracle's soldier in a battle of large companies. Linux, perhaps, did kind of volunteer for the job, but it is a scary one to say the least. Microsoft is distracted by the U.S. Department of Justice at the moment, but that will not last forever. Expect to see the heavy artillery come out at some point. SYSV streams, say.
Big companies can be pretty imperious in their demands.
Linus is unlikely to back down in such a situation, even after the big company's bigwigs have gone to the Transmeta bigwigs to get some pressure applied. Linus gets disgusted and bails out. Linux would probably survive such stresses, but few people would be pleased. But the fact is that Linux is being dragged into other peoples' battles, and the combatants may not always have the best interests of Linux and its users in mind. One wonders what all those other folks have been doing.