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IBM: Open Source's Friend? Not So Much Now

• nailer 17y ago
  > "One is that IBM is either a friend of open source, or it's simply an opportunist, supporting some projects when it suits, and attacking others when it doesn't." Business exists to sieze opportunities. IBM is a friend to Open Source (eg, employing Linux kernel and Samba developers) when it helps sell mainframes and Power chips, but doesn't like emulators of it's proprietary mainframe firmwares. This sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
  • adamc 17y ago
    i.e., IBM is a hypocritical organization and is entirely driven by sales.
    • nailer 17y ago
      If by 'hypocritical organization' you mean business, and by 'sales' you mean revenue, then yes. This isn't really limited to business either. I have a couple of OSS projects I maintain. I also have some proprietary bits and pieces. If I thought someone was ripping off my proprietary bits, I'd try and fight back too, regardless of their license.
• nl 17y ago
  I suspect that the nastygram came from IBM's mainframe business unit, not one of the units which typically deals with Open Source. TurboHercules should GPL their product & see what IBM does then...
  • brazzy 17y ago
    Very good point. IBM is a huge company. Thinking of it as a monolithic entity whose actions are all coordinated according to a master plan is tempting, but unrealistic.