"Steve's view is really on a multidecade time frame," said Nick Bowen, vice president of Unix and Intel server software development at IBM. "Over time, Linux and Intel and Windows will catch up to where we were yesterday (with AIX). When they catch up, we'll be two steps down the road."-- Nick Bowen, 2003-01-29

"The notion of a lead in Unix is eroding faster than we expected. Linux has grown up incredibly fast already. I don't see any sign of a deceleration,"-- James Governor, 2003-01-29

"They've [IBM] denied it [Linux] would replace AIX in the past," said Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff. "Perhaps their thinking is beginning to shift. They've been quite clear that they see Linux as picking up AIX technologies maybe a year, two years later, but they've certainly been quite circumspect about saying Linux would ever replace AIX."-- Gordon Haff, 2003-01-29

"It's very clear that Unix still has some significant functional advantages over Linux in high-end systems,"-- Tony Iams, 2003-01-29

"Microsoft sees IBM spending money on Linux, making Linux more robust, getting in the way of their aspirations. I think it makes them very unhappy," Mills said.-- Steven Mills, 2003-01-29

Asked whether IBM's eventual goal is to replace AIX with Linux, Mills responded, "It's fairly obvious we're fine with that idea...It's the logical successor."

A replacement "won't happen overnight," Mills said, but years of experience designing operating systems at IBM and other companies means developers know just where Linux needs to go. "The road map is clear. It's an eight-lane highway."-- Steven Mills, 2003-01-29