[ Thanks to Mayank
for this link. ]
“Robert LeBlanc was part of the original team that evaluated
Linux, the open source movement and decided that this was where IBM
should be. IBM’s recently announced billion dollar fund is proof
that IBM is serious about Linux. Here, Mr. Robert LeBlanc talks
about a variety of issues including the reasons for choosing Linux,
the status of Monterey and the release of AIX code into the open
source community.”
“How and why did IBM decide to support Linux when they already
have their own OS?”
“The shift started about two years ago. An internal effort was
started and I was also part of this team of 6-7 people. We wanted
to know what this thing was and whether we needed yet another OS.
We also looked at open source. Open source had far more benefits in
terms of process. There was a lot of vigor in the process, lot of
value in the process. It was a self-policing environment. If you
did good work, you got noticed and got to do more good work. If you
didn’t pull your weight then you were shunned by the community. We
also liked Linux. It was built right from the ground up. A small
kernel which was very important as was the ability to add modules.
Linux could scale upwards and downwards. The open source model was
very good. We saw that Linux as an OS had very strong technical
underpinnings. Another point to note was that customers were
wanting a more open environment. We had just been through the
Internet evolution and we saw the power of the Internet a lot
before our competitors did. We were also members of the Apache
project. The world did not need another web server, but the world
needed a very good web server that could grow and expand. The world
did not need another OS, but what the world did need was a common
OS that was open source and scalable. We made the decision 18
months ago. We’re way ahead of HP and Sun. So it’s customer demand
and we’re giving them what they want.”