The biggest challenge Linux companies will face is attrition. A lot of the gatekeepers in the Linux community stand to make a lot of money after they vest. There's no doubt that developers will go on programming for the love of it, but company loyalty isn't something anyone should count on. Vrolyk also sees the danger in economic pressure. Companies with huge market valuations will undoubtedly be pressed to claim their own versions of Linux are better than competing products.
Fragmentation seems to be on a lot of people's minds right now.
Red Hat declined to join a LinuxWorld panel discussion on the differences among Linux distributions, saying that such a discussion was contrary to the spirit of Linux community. Red Hat's written statement gathered scattered applause, much to the annoyance of the moderators from Network World, the panel's sponsor. Inc. All rights reserved.