I doubt the Linux threat or the SCO lawsuit will develop into big problems. Linux became popular mainly because it has a catchy name. Trade publications would write about Linux because to write about the other UNIX-like operating systems meant taking too much time and space educating their audience about UNIX, its history and it's variants. When IT professionals wanted to implement open-systems servers they found they could get Linux approved because their managers had seen the word Linux in print. The word Linux sounds like a product, unlike weenie-sounding names like FreeBSD that are, in fact, more robust. They found, to their dismay, that educating managers is really hard.

(Never teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig.)

Most of the World Wide Web and the Internet itself run on UNIX variants with Microsoft's share continuing to shrink. Many of the largest commercial sites run FreeBSD or NetBSD but other open-source UNIX variants are widely used as well. Linux has been the basis for IBM's e-Commerce strategy but I don't think they would have much trouble switching that strategy to another open-source UNIX variant. Their choice of Linux was, again, because the managers at their customer sites had already seen the word in print and the sales job was easier.

Outside of developers, hobiests and other tech-weenies (like me), Linux isn't widely used as a desktop OS. It's used mostly on servers and central arrays.

The thing that makes Windows easy to attack is that it's designed for ease of access and use. Many of the hostile programs propagating over the Internet are actually assembled from parts by crackers who would not have been able to create the techniques themselves. UNIX and it's variants offer the professional administrator the tools to make the computing environment as secure as it needs to be. Of course a lot of hobbyists working with Linux may not have the background and experience needed to implement good security.

      - Mark