Those strengths lie in the nature of the open source movement. Open source development, and therefore the development of Linux, parallels the scientific method. Because the innovations in Linux are written as publicly available source code, each innovation is subject to peer review, perhaps not the formal review process of real science, but a vigorous and detailed review by highly skilled programmers. New code is then built on the best of these innovations to advance the state of the art. In Linux development we get to stand on each other's shoulders and cooperatively build a better system.
Proprietary systems build and test each piece of the system in secret.
No outside review is allowed, and no one can legally include proprietary code developed by someone else in a new product. The recent announcement that IBM would be moving their large-scale Linux clusters into their mainframe products would seem to indicate that Linux has come of age and moved into the harsh light of commercial system. Do you feel that this is a positive development for the Linux community as a whole, or a fundamental shift away from the open source philosophy that has always governed Linux in the past. I think we should draw a distinction between Linux as a community and Linux as a business. The biggest impact that IBM and others have on the Linux community is the new code they contribute to the development effort and the new enthusiasts they bring with them.