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IBM Drops Linux ViaVoice SDK

Posted by timothy on from the electronically-say-it-ain't-so dept.

quick_dry_3 writes: "IBM's ViaVoice list moderator says that "IBM continues to support the Linux community by integrating Linux into all key products. The Linux desktop dictation product is still available and will continue to be sold. At this time, we have decided to discontinue our SDK for developing desktop Linux voice-enabled applications." Full copy of email is here."

1 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. Not Surprised by MrRudeDude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IBM was always a little too controlling with their via voice stuff. They wouldn't let people bundle via voice into a application to redistribute it, you had to instruct the end user to install via voice and then install your stuff, which I happen to know stopped at least one person from distributing a pretty cool application beyound a few of his friends (it was an IRC client that read out loud).

    Of course I'm preaching to the choir here on /., but the lesson is, never sink lots of time/money/heartache into something that isn't Free as in Freedom.

    Possibly IBM's policies are the result of recognizing that they have an incredibly powerful product in via voice, and trying to figure out how to turn it into the cash cow it should be. Perhaps they could GPL (not LGPL) the library, and let the Free Software writers popularize it and make it the de-facto standard, and hope to make money selling non-GPL licenses to those companies that don't want to GPL their applications. Not a sure thing by any means, but maybe it would be better than what they are doing now. I think their current action of withdrawing that SDK hurts them more than it helps them.