Solaris vs. Linux on battlefield of licensing

Noah Gift writes in OpenSolaris vs. GNU/Linux: Deathmatch or Lovefest? about the competition between Linux and Solaris

I think this is a truly brilliant strategic move by Sun, as it raises the bar for GNU/Linux and Linus who is very adamant about his dislike for GPL3. I do see there being competition between OpenSolaris and GNU/Linux in the coming years, and I do think it is a good thing, as competition is what drives innovation. I also see an interesting dilemma for GNU/Linux as OpenSolaris will be able to use GNU/Linux code, but GNU/Linux won’t be to use OpenSolaris code. This gives OpenSolaris a huge competitive advantage and might give them a temporary head start in the head to head competition of their operating systems. Ultimately, it seems like GNU/Linux might have a very large problem on it’s hands if it stays with GPL2.

He gives some forecasts for the future. I would add another forecast: Solaris and Linux will share the market. Linux was the wake-up call for Solaris to get open-sourced , Solaris is the wake-up call for the kernel community to get back into innovation mode. It´s a symbiosis between the operating environment. And as usual: There is no market seperation, when the next binary is only one makefile away.