matthew
March 8th, 2006, 05:38 AM
Seems like a rumor to me, but it's on digg with a link. Discuss at will.
Digg: http://digg.com/linux_unix/IBM_Not_To_Use_Vista_-_But_Will_Move_to_Linux_Desktops
Links to: http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/5436/
--EDIT ADDED--
I did a bit more reading and here is the context of the comments, which are far more interesting taken as a whole. From here: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060305214231974 It's the last paragraph that got this topic rolling, though I found the whole thing interesting reading.
IBM in the World of Open Source
While the techincal presentations spoke dearly to the computer scientist in me, the most interesting presentation in an overall perspective was IBM's Andreas Pleschek speaking on "IBM vs. Open Source, Friend or Foe". Andreas Pleschek is working at IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, and head of open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe. As far as Google tells me, he has given the same presentation before, at least in the Netherlands and in Sweden. Nevertheless, it was news to me and provided me with a more detailed understanding of IBM's future plans.
He began by stating that IBM is for open standards. And since open source software drives open standards, they are for open source too. Apparently, it was the Jikes (http://jikes.sourceforge.net/) Java compiler, that opened their eyes about open source. IBM developed Jikes, and in 1997 they put it up for free download as binaries for their UNIX platform. When they put Linux binaries up for download in 1998, they experienced a download rate seven times as big as for the UNIX version. That told them that Linux was going somewhere. In late 1998, they open sourced Jikes, and within eight hours, they received a non-trivial enhancement that was so complex that they had to study it for days just to understand it. In 2000, Lou Gerstner announced that IBM was going to invest one billion dollars in Linux, and IBM now have 650 people working on open source projects such as Apache and Linux. Furthermore, IBM has open sourced software such as Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) and Cloudscape (the latter is now known as Apache Derby (http://db.apache.org/derby/)).
IBM found out that they could use open source principles in-house, because open source "enhances multi-site development". They have purchased several products over the years (Lotus, Tivoli, WebSphere, DB2, etc.) and they wanted to break them up into smaller components that could be mixed and matched. But they discovered that the pieces did not fit together, because the different developers did not talk to each other. Andreas Pleschek referenced Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar (http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/)" and said that IBM wanted to exploit the bazaar model rather than their previous cathedral model. They told their developers just to share, although it took some convincing.
Last year, IBM changed their business model after a Gartner study told them that 19% of the software market will move from commercial, proprietary software to open source software over the next five years. IBM's new philosophy is to take the best from both worlds. They will use open source for the commodities, i.e. things that everyone need, such as file zippers, browsers and word processors. On the other hand, he said, proprietary software is better for specialized software - mainly because there is not enough community interest to drive a complex, fast development for something that only a few people need. He said that there is a pendulum motion between the two, so the border between what is best solved by Open Source and what is best solved by proprietary software moves all the time.
Accordingly, IBM will now offer three categories of software: Some will be Open Source, which they will help develop, sponsor or even donate to the Open Source community. Also, they will offer support and integration for it. Some software will still be proprietary - mostly their big, complex systems in full-blown versions. And some will be offered as closed source, but free download. That will often be watered-down versions of the proprietary software. He used the term "community edition".
When asked from the audience whether the new business model works, he said that IBM's customers loved it but that their sales persons were "concerned". But since Gartner predicted that 19% of the market shares would be lost anyway, he did not think that it makes much difference on sales. And if they can sell support to just 10% of the customers that switch to open source, they will still be better off.
Overall, I had the impression that IBM has seen the writing on the wall that proprietary software eventually will be a thing of the past. But on the other hand they have a huge investment in proprietary software, and that is still where they get their money. So of course, they cannot just open source it all at once. They have to do it gradually so that they can grow a new business to replace the income of the former. Personally, I do not like their closed source/free download idea, but I realize that it is the only way for them to keep the business for the full-blown versions. I think they would open source it if they could. But then again, a more cynical interpretation could be that the "community editions" is just a way to get people dependant on them in the hope that they will upgrade to paid-for versions later on.
At the end of the presentation, Andreas Pleschek revealed that the laptop he used for the presentation was running a pre-release of their new platform, the Open Client. It is actually a Red Hat work station with IBM's new Workplace Client, which is built in Java on top of Eclipse. Because of Eclipse, it runs on both Linux and Windows, and they have been able to reuse the C++ code in Lotus Notes for Windows to run it natively on Linux via Eclipse. Internally in IBM, for years, they have had a need to run Lotus Notes on Linux, and now they can. And they will offer it to their customers.
Workplace uses Lotus Notes for mail, calendar, etc. and Firefox as their browser. For an office suite, they use OpenOffice.org.
Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista.
Digg: http://digg.com/linux_unix/IBM_Not_To_Use_Vista_-_But_Will_Move_to_Linux_Desktops
Links to: http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/5436/
--EDIT ADDED--
I did a bit more reading and here is the context of the comments, which are far more interesting taken as a whole. From here: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060305214231974 It's the last paragraph that got this topic rolling, though I found the whole thing interesting reading.
IBM in the World of Open Source
While the techincal presentations spoke dearly to the computer scientist in me, the most interesting presentation in an overall perspective was IBM's Andreas Pleschek speaking on "IBM vs. Open Source, Friend or Foe". Andreas Pleschek is working at IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, and head of open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe. As far as Google tells me, he has given the same presentation before, at least in the Netherlands and in Sweden. Nevertheless, it was news to me and provided me with a more detailed understanding of IBM's future plans.
He began by stating that IBM is for open standards. And since open source software drives open standards, they are for open source too. Apparently, it was the Jikes (http://jikes.sourceforge.net/) Java compiler, that opened their eyes about open source. IBM developed Jikes, and in 1997 they put it up for free download as binaries for their UNIX platform. When they put Linux binaries up for download in 1998, they experienced a download rate seven times as big as for the UNIX version. That told them that Linux was going somewhere. In late 1998, they open sourced Jikes, and within eight hours, they received a non-trivial enhancement that was so complex that they had to study it for days just to understand it. In 2000, Lou Gerstner announced that IBM was going to invest one billion dollars in Linux, and IBM now have 650 people working on open source projects such as Apache and Linux. Furthermore, IBM has open sourced software such as Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) and Cloudscape (the latter is now known as Apache Derby (http://db.apache.org/derby/)).
IBM found out that they could use open source principles in-house, because open source "enhances multi-site development". They have purchased several products over the years (Lotus, Tivoli, WebSphere, DB2, etc.) and they wanted to break them up into smaller components that could be mixed and matched. But they discovered that the pieces did not fit together, because the different developers did not talk to each other. Andreas Pleschek referenced Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar (http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/)" and said that IBM wanted to exploit the bazaar model rather than their previous cathedral model. They told their developers just to share, although it took some convincing.
Last year, IBM changed their business model after a Gartner study told them that 19% of the software market will move from commercial, proprietary software to open source software over the next five years. IBM's new philosophy is to take the best from both worlds. They will use open source for the commodities, i.e. things that everyone need, such as file zippers, browsers and word processors. On the other hand, he said, proprietary software is better for specialized software - mainly because there is not enough community interest to drive a complex, fast development for something that only a few people need. He said that there is a pendulum motion between the two, so the border between what is best solved by Open Source and what is best solved by proprietary software moves all the time.
Accordingly, IBM will now offer three categories of software: Some will be Open Source, which they will help develop, sponsor or even donate to the Open Source community. Also, they will offer support and integration for it. Some software will still be proprietary - mostly their big, complex systems in full-blown versions. And some will be offered as closed source, but free download. That will often be watered-down versions of the proprietary software. He used the term "community edition".
When asked from the audience whether the new business model works, he said that IBM's customers loved it but that their sales persons were "concerned". But since Gartner predicted that 19% of the market shares would be lost anyway, he did not think that it makes much difference on sales. And if they can sell support to just 10% of the customers that switch to open source, they will still be better off.
Overall, I had the impression that IBM has seen the writing on the wall that proprietary software eventually will be a thing of the past. But on the other hand they have a huge investment in proprietary software, and that is still where they get their money. So of course, they cannot just open source it all at once. They have to do it gradually so that they can grow a new business to replace the income of the former. Personally, I do not like their closed source/free download idea, but I realize that it is the only way for them to keep the business for the full-blown versions. I think they would open source it if they could. But then again, a more cynical interpretation could be that the "community editions" is just a way to get people dependant on them in the hope that they will upgrade to paid-for versions later on.
At the end of the presentation, Andreas Pleschek revealed that the laptop he used for the presentation was running a pre-release of their new platform, the Open Client. It is actually a Red Hat work station with IBM's new Workplace Client, which is built in Java on top of Eclipse. Because of Eclipse, it runs on both Linux and Windows, and they have been able to reuse the C++ code in Lotus Notes for Windows to run it natively on Linux via Eclipse. Internally in IBM, for years, they have had a need to run Lotus Notes on Linux, and now they can. And they will offer it to their customers.
Workplace uses Lotus Notes for mail, calendar, etc. and Firefox as their browser. For an office suite, they use OpenOffice.org.
Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista.