“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.”