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*nix vendors have been squabbling over standards and licensing and technology issues for a very, very long time -- and the practical result is fragmentation in the *nix marketplace. Now, Linux is poised to suffer the same fate.

Exactly correct, except that they've already had this problem for a while, and it is only getting worse. Red Hat, Red Flag, SuSe, Mandrake, Gentoo, Slackware, Debian, the list grows every day. And they ALL still fail to see the value of 'integration'.

The funny thing is ... the zealots like to say that Linux is going to take over the *nix market. But what they fail to mention is that there is no such thing as a single "Linux". Yeah, it's a kernel. But there are literally dozens of distributions, each with differing filesystems, install locations, etc. They can't even agree on the most fundamental things -- and consequently Linux Standard Base is doomed to failure. The thing that they consider a virtue -- their "openness" -- is also the the thing that makes them least willing to standardize and agree with one another. Why? Because they don't have to. The open nature of the source code makes it possible to end-run one another. It's totally "Not-Invented-Here" syndrome. Egos run amok. And, as you pointed out, the problem is getting worse, not better.