eWEEK, Schwartz Seeks to Clarify Sun’s Linux Strategy: Firstly, they’re portable, based an open standards (rather than standards determined by volume distribution—which is the problem the Linux community is increasingly facing as dominant distributions move in directions the community doesn’t want). Secondly, because they’re open standards, you can move applications from one supplier’s implementations to any other. Open standards enable substitutability—and competition. Markets determined by volume alone are subject to tipping—witness Windows, and what happened with the browser world. Because Microsoft was the dominant supplier, it controlled the market, and now it’s telling the world which Web sites will render in IE, hiding behind the Eolas suit. No amount of standards can influence the Windows world—the Java world works differently. Participants agree to a standard, then we ship it. Tipping is already occurring in the Linux world, and I am worried about it. For example, personally, I’m a big fan of Debian—I think it tries to keep the industry honest.