So both are now up against it. All of these plans will be up in the air if the 2.4 kernel is too flawed for commercial use, but nobody will know anything for sure for a month or two yet. This means that, for a while, the Linux community is likely to find itself in a similar position to Microsoft following the launch of Windows 2000. Here most corporate users have been wary of moving established applications and data to a major new revision of the OS, preferring to wait for patches and fixes. And because the majority of existing Linux 2.2 packages are backward-compatible with Linux 2.4, there is really no reason for corporate network managers to rush into any decisions.
Time is on their side.
It will be at least six to nine months, maybe even a year, before we can judge whether it lives up to its reputation. To say it will mean the death of Risc Unix is propaganda and hype.