[NMLUG] IBM.com/open

[Don Wilde]

Will Pearson wrote:
> Yes, it seems to me that from a strategic point of view, IBM is
> embracing Linux to throw off their competitions game plan. Which seems
> to be working extraordinarily well. IBM isn't embracing Open Source and
> the GPL whole heartedly. Lets not forget that they have invested
> billions of dollars into proprietary software development in the past 10
> years alone. I think IBM is using Linux to attack frustrated 'doze
> customers and Sun customers while gaining a large foothold in the small
> business sector, especially overseas. IBM doesn't sell consumer line
> computers any more, except via mail order, they don't sell much to the
> consumer any more, which is also the small office/home office
> environment. Cynical? Perhaps. But it would be foolish to not expect
> this from IBM after all. People are quick to forget how powerful IBM
> used to be, and in many ways, still are. Don't forget the HAL computer
> in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and how HAL was just one letter away from IBM,
> and was written as such because it played off of peoples fear of how
> powerful they were at the time.
> 
> Just my .02$
> 
I think they're embracing OS where it gives them good leverage. You're 
absolutely right that IBM had and still has a huge base of legacy 
development and IP as well as a lot of business savvy. They are out for 
business advantage and nobody's ever said they aren't. I'd rather have 
IBM and Sun and Apple battling M$, than having them all buying from them 
as they do now.

I'll go back to my soapbox for a moment, IYDM. Isn't this what we want? 
Healthy companies making profits -- and jobs -- while leveraging a 
common pool of open software, so every has a common basis for work that 
ISN'T proprietary? What remains to be seen, of course, is what IBM will 
choose to contribute back. That's always been the question with BSD, 
too, although we have a few companies who support programmers to work on 
the core code. I'll honestly say I've done very little real good for the 
Project, outside of buying CDs and writing articles. I only wish I 
could! Silver Lynx still isn't big enough to support me, let alone 
cadres of supercharged coding wizards. :D
-- 
Don Wilde  ---------> Silver Lynx <----------
  Raising the Trajectory of Human Development
---------------------------------------------
http://www.Silver-Lynx.com   001-505-891-4175