|
Recent
Articles |
Review:
The Linux Programmer's Toolbox
Wow. Regular readers here know I don't say "wow"
lightly. I may like a book, I may even think it's
useful or even something you really should have,
but very few really make my jaw drop.
Nokia
Eases The Pain For C And Linux Developers
For mobile application developers and those creating
LBS apps this is huge! If you develop application
and program in C or Linux then your gonna love
the new SDKs just released by Forum Nokia. The
Open C plug-ins...
Enderle
On Linux
Linux does not exist except as a concept, we can
all move on now. No I am not bashing Rob, but
I did find his paper "The Five Things you Aren't
Allowed to Discuss...
Fighting
Analysis Paralysis With Open Source?
I stumbled across this
analysis of the Linux Kernel which brought back
"fond" memories of my market opportunity forecasting
days. In the analysis,
the author, kripken,
estimates that "at most, 60% of the Linux Kernel...
Novell
Could Loose Access To New Linux Versions
Make a deal with a big closed source company and
the FSF (Free Software Foundation) may pull your
access rights to Linux Distro's. At least that
is what Novell...
Invalidating
The Linux Buffer Cache
When you write data, it doesn't necessarily get
written to disk right then. The kernel maintains
caches of many things, and disk data is something
where a lot of work is done to keep everything
fast and efficient.
Invalidating
The Linux Buffer Cache
When you write data, it doesn't necessarily get
written to disk right then. The kernel maintains
caches of many things, and disk data is something
where a lot of work is done to keep everything
fast and efficient. That's...
Cron
Isn't Working?
Let's just get this out of the way first: when
someone says cron is not working, it almost always
is, and they have just misunderstood something
basic.
Xen
GUI In Fedora Core 6
Fedora Core is Red Hat's Linux distribution for
testing new technologies.
|
|
|
04.25.07
IBM
And OSS - Burning Boats
By: Savio Rodrigues
Expert Author
2007-04-25
Okay, I do not speak for IBM in any way (read
full disclaimer here). But after reading the following from
Matt Asay's post, I couldn't resist.
"IBM uses Apache/BSD to burn boats…everyone else's.
:-) The company builds its software business on proprietary
software and its services and hardware businesses on open
source software (as well as its proprietary software.) This
is classic Martin Fink-type thinking, i.e., open source your
complements which also happen to be your competitors' core
competencies. The problem is, they'll likely do the same.
Or, more pertinently, an open source competitor will come
along that doesn't have the same need to keep sacred any proprietary
software. How do you compete with someone that can drive all
software value to $0.00?"
Let's dig into Matt's statement:
MA: "IBM uses Apache/BSD to burn boats…everyone else's.
:-)"
How many open source projects does IBM contribute developers,
hardware and/or fund to? Let's take the example of Apache
HTTP Server. Long ago, (the royal) we decided that web
serving was a commodity and it didn't make sense to build
our own web server to use inside of WebSphere
Application Server. Fancy thing was that BEA
and Oracle
made the same decision. Does IBM get more than it gives to
the Apache HTTP project? Yep, that's what you'd expect from
an open community project. But we have a team that
is works on the Apache HTTP project day in and day out. What
about Apache
Geronimo? Yep, it's the base for WAS
Community Edition and yes we have a sizable number of
IBMers who work on Geronimo as their day jobs. What about
Linux (let's throw in a GPL project), again, yes, IBMers work
inside the Linux community as their day job. Eclipse, check.
OSGi, check. OASIS, check. I could go on….
MA: "The company builds its software business on proprietary
software and its services and hardware businesses on open
source software (as well as its proprietary software.)"
Umm, so yes, IGS
will work with OSS based on client needs. But heck, they'll
work with IBM products, Microsoft product, Oracle products
or any software the client seeks. Next, does Linux help drive
hardware sales? Sure, but remember we spend resources inside
the Linux community, so we're not taking without giving. While
IBM may drive $1B
(or whatever it was in 2006) from Linux-based software, hardware
and services, it is a small portion of our total $90+ billion
in revenue. I'd suggest you want to rephrase the statement
to read "(as well as open source software)" in brackets.
MA: "Or, more pertinently, an open source competitor will
come along that doesn't have the same need to keep sacred
any proprietary software. How do you compete with someone
that can drive all software value to $0.00?"
Umm, we're competing
and winning quite well. Thanks for asking :-)
Anywho, aside from this paragraph on IBM that
I take exception with, Matt's post is well worth the read.
He hits the nail on the head when he summarizes with:
"Net net: burning the boats is the right thing
to do, but which boats to burn…?"
Indeed…Which boats, when and how does lighting the fire help
customers? That customer angle is very important and likely
the reason that we'll see OSS and traditional software (happily)
coexisting. (Much more on this in a later post)
Comments
About the Author:
I am taking a semi-break from IBM life as I return to finish
a PhD in Industrial Engineering. I've held roles in market intelligence,
strategy and product management. I'm ex-product manager of IBM
WAS Community Edition, and blog
about enterprise open source topics. |
