IBM and Open Source
April 16, 2010
The idea that IBM was an open source outfit struck me as silly when I first heard about its 2005 patent pledge. I enjoyed the excellent article “IBM Breaks the Taboo and Betrays Its Promise to the FOSS Community”. You will want to read Florian Mueller’s write up and make up your own mind. The information presented does not surprise me. IBM has big revenue and may be one of the “too big to fail” outfits. The company has shifted from software to consulting and it is now traveling well worn paths in its online ambitions, deals with telecommunication companies, and baloney about the economics of mainframes. This passage caught my attention:
This proves that IBM’s love for free and open source software ends where its business interests begin. In market segments where IBM has nothing to lose, open source comes in handy and the developer community is courted and cherished. In an area in which IBM generates massive revenues (an estimated $25 billion annually just on mainframe software sales!), any weapon will be brought into position against open source. Even patents, which represent to open source what nuclear arms are in the physical world.
I think open source is one of the important trends in play at this time. Companies have wrapped themselves in open source robes. Beneath the robes is the same old entity. Same motives. Same goals. Same belief that marketing can create a corporate reality. Well, maybe IBM is protecting its mainframe assets and still loves open source?
Stephen E Arnold, April 16, 2010
A freebie.
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