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Why IBM Open Sourced Cloudscape
An anonymous reader writes "A common and a consistent framework for accessing information enables developers to do more things with more people more often. This article shares how Derby fits into IBM's developer strategy, the Java application stack, its intention to drive more innovation around Java on Linux, and why they want to make the Derby database become as ubiquitous as the Apache HTTP server." (Derby is the new name for the project based on the formerly commercial Cloudscape database.)
IBM has been the open source hero for many but why on earth haven't they opened OS2? Are they just going to let it rot?
We hear this every couple of months, but let's look at the bigger picture for a minute. Why bother? OS/2 code might have been useful to the open source community half a decade ago, but by now we've made significant advances in every major area of operating system and user interface design -- there's simply nothing left in OS/2 that we can make any use of, because at this stage of the game we've already re-implemented it all.
IBM has, in fact, checked a bunch of stuff into the Linux kernel that the did own -- things like zero copy, etc. that may have been (among other places) in OS/2. So we actually did get the things which IBM owned and felt we could make use of. But if the whole OS/2 code base were opened tomorrow, I don't really think it would have much of an impact on anything. Maybe an SCO-style lawsuit from Microsoft, but not much in the technology realm.
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IBM acquired Cloudscape as a by-product of acquiring Informix. Open sourcing it is one way to get rid of YADB (yet another database) to focus on their bread and butter, DB2. Probably not a bad deal for them in the sense that it generates lots of goodwill in the community at the same time. Not that I'm cynical or anything.
Eric
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