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IBM to unveil more Linux plans

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the this-is-good dept.

Over at Financial times, there is a story about IBM which will unveil a Linux plan to invest 200 million dollars, helping companies to write Linux applications. Definitely worth a read. Thoughts anyone?

6 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. That's not where money is needed by FascDot+Killed+My+Pr · · Score: 4

    IBM's strategy is very smart--help APP developers start using Linux and there will be more apps--which means more users, which means more of everything for everybody.

    But throwing money at the kernel people gets you nothing. The kernel people aren't driven by money. You might conceivably find someone who was unable to implement a feature due to lack of money, but all your money has bought is the feature--not apps that exploit the feature.

    In short, IBM is throwing money at problems that benefit from having money thrown at them--but no farther.
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  2. It fits with what we know so far by jd · · Score: 4
    IBM are unquestionably looking at Linux as a low to medium-end replacement for AIX. They've ported most (if not all) their Java tools over, they have TWO Java compilers (Jikes & IBM JDK), they've ported a large chunk of JFS, and then there's their DB/2 port, their Application Server port, their work with Apache and their ports of Linux to IBM mainframe systems.

    IMHO, throwing big bucks at Linux is an attempt to turn Linux into a system that IBM can use to blow away Sun and DEC at the low-end, and boost their sales & support.

    NOBODY spends money, unless they feel they're getting -some- return, of whatever kind that means something to them. In IBM's case, long-term survival versus "budget" systems (such as Wintel) and short-term improvement in relations with geeks and companies make for some plausable return that IBM might well want.

    IMHO, also expect to see IBM and SGI work jointly on Linux. So far, both have been doing a lot of work in EXACTLY the same areas (journalled fs, Apache improvements, etc), and so it would make a lot of sense if they were to combine resources, rather than duplicate work.

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  3. Building Blocks of E-Commerce and E-Societcy by s_n · · Score: 5
    This sounds promising.. $200'000'000 is quite some money. now what to do with them in order to complete our universe of free software ?


    Microsoft gave us the answer: look at their microsoft.net/whitepaper, read how they plan to change the world, and then, let's sit together and thinker how we, the people, can make something better, something worth living. We need free, standardized solutions for the following areas:
    • A Privacy/Identity Framework
      A Client/Server solution for identifing people in a secure manner, where *we* control our privacy. This is a must for serious e-commerce, e-governemt.

    • Building Blocks for Net-Applications
      Tomorrows Net will be in the center of tomorrows society. Connected by mobiles, and a myriad of other devices, we will communicate, deal and live together digitally to a great extend. And we do not want to let a single corporate (or governmental) entity control how things will work.

    • Governmental Tools
      The more we "live" on net, the greater will be the need for some control - that's what the government was for the old economy. In the new economy we want to define how this control works, who controls whom, what's right and what's not. This all depends on the infrastructure.
    That's a lot, I know. And all the Biggies (Microsoft, AOL, Nokia, Media, TelCo's, etc.) will be fighting for defining the standards of the tomorrows net-world. We have to act now, in order to define our standards - you do know why, don't you?
  4. Captain by GnomeAttic · · Score: 4

    IBM has been pleasanly surprising us ever since they made Benjamin Sisko their Captain. Coincidence? I think the facts speak for themselves.

  5. Linux plux IBM Hardware... by mancuskc · · Score: 4

    IBM Hardware:

    It might not be the fastest, quietest, smallest, best looking, most cutting edge -

    But by God is it reliable.

    Once worked for a company with 43 IBM AS/400 machines, one at each of their sites. We had a disk crash about once a month.

    Bad? They were all over 10 years old, and had NEVER been rebooted, or turned off. (Oh - and we never lost any data, the diags built into the hardware gave you just enough time to pipe the data off the disk before it went bang).

    I would like an industrial IBM machine with Linux please - have it oiled and sent to my room immediately.

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    When I were your age, all round here were fields...
  6. What Crap by Jon+Peterson · · Score: 5

    I spend years telling people to write cross platform code and now we get companies like IBM promoting Linux software.

    I hate Linux software, I hate Windows software I'm fed up with this 'one OS to rule the world' crap.

    I want cross platform software. Anything that says it works on Linux but not other unixes I don't touch with a barge pole. I get fed up with crap like "KDE, the popular Linux desktop". KDE runs on multiple platforms dammit, as does Gnome, Apache and all the other poster children of the so-called Linux revolution.

    I have no interest in Linux software, only good, cross-platform free software.

    Grrrrrrrr.......

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