The fairy-tale ball this time is the very posh information appliance market. Free and supported Both areas are where Linux can compete. You don't have to apply for a source license. I think that the whole openness is a real benefit.
People are aware of the fact that they can do local changes without fighting about it.
A few Linux-based devices are already on sale. Not that any user of TiVo's personal video recorder would know it had Linux inside. The fact that the recorder runs on Linux only becomes apparent when users browse TiVo's Web site, rather than surf TV channels. Chip maker National Semiconductor Corp. Linux could succeed in grabbing a large share of the information appliance market, only to be relegated to an obscure footnote in the product manual.