People tend to get all fixated on the role of protocols (XML et. al.) as the tool for creating openness and interoperability across the Internet. That maybe a mistake. It maybe we should be a lot more conscience about the role of a diverse population of languages in this game. That a world of one language is, in time, a monotheistic world. That world, while possibly somewhat more efficient, encourages a monopoly.

In a statement, IBM said it will stand behind its products and customers, but raised an intellectual-property issue that SCO so far has skirted: patents.

"IBM will continue to ship, support and develop AIX, which represents years of IBM innovation, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and many patents," IBM said.

"I think that's a clear signal," said Gray Cary, an attorney at Mark Radcliffe, who said that a company's first response to an intellectual-property infringement lawsuit is a countersuit based on that company's patents. "I think that's code for 'stand by for the hurricane.' You're going to find a stack of patents about 5-feet high that your product infringes that's going to run up the cost of litigation.'"