Uh huh. It was an interesting time. I recall chatting with several companies about what I was seeing with Linus and "Linux". One company was the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO). SCO's response was to ignore things. And that's what they did. In the face of disruptive technology. Others did the same. Others do now. The game is far from over....
At that time and even through around 1998, that was an appropriate response. After all, how long has Stallman been promising The Hurd without delivering? There's serious corporate muscle behind Linux kernel development now and things are developing quickly.