:Software Magazine: Guarding the Citadel: IBM's Open Source Stance
Software Magazine: Guarding the Citadel: IBM's Open Source Stance Jan 8, 2001, 22 :01 UTC (13 Talkback[s]) (10734 reads) (Other stories by John P. Desmond)
"Why would the world's biggest computer company invest so much in "free"
software? The answer: It's about software infrastructure, the "control point" of
account control."
"The IBM open source thrust is a way to blunt Microsoft's advance into the
enterprise. Microsoft's growth strategy scales beyond the sale of high volumes of
desktop packaged software. Now the company is racing to win over the software
backbone that has always been the domain of the Big Iron hardware suppliers via
their operating systems. Much of the independent software industry has grown up
around the proposition of adding value to these operating systems...."
"The arrival of Linux and the open source movement was well-timed for IBM,
and for its partners in open computing, including Sun, Oracle, and BEA. Here is a
software development and distribution model that potentially threatens the core of
the Microsoft business model. Of course, it also threatens the business models of
Microsoft's competitors, but one thing at a time. So let's embrace it, win over a
new generation of developers and ultimately computer users, slow down the pace
of Windows 2000 acceptance in the enterprise, and live to fight another day."
