"(The license) allows Microsoft to leverage the fear, uncertainty and doubt that is moving around Linux," said Gordon Haff, an analyst at Illuminata. "This is a defensive move on the part of Microsoft, which isn't to say that the sales and marketing people won't take advantage of it."-- Gordon Haff, 2003-05-19

"The announcement really serves two purposes," RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady said. "First, it temporarily allows Microsoft to steal the moral higher ground from its Linux competitors; and second, it's a big fork in the eye to IBM."-- Stephen O'Grady, 2003-05-19

"This benefits Microsoft more than anything else. Microsoft does a little Unix work, but not much," Perens said. ? "This is more of a symbolic act intended to intimidate other companies" into complying with SCO's royalty demands, Perens said. "From my point of view, it weakens (SCO's) case, because it seems that there has been collaboration with Microsoft (over Linux intellectual-property claims) from the start."-- Bruce Perens, 2003-05-19

"Microsoft has been warning people about IP issues for a long time," Gartner analyst David Smith said. "In many ways they're looking back and able to say 'I told you so.'"-- David Smith, 2003-05-19