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IBM Derides OpenSolaris as Not-So-Open

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the when-the-playground's-in-full-swing dept.

MaverickFire writes "OpenSolaris isn't a true open-source project, but rather a "facade," because Sun Microsystems doesn't share control of it with outsiders, executives from rival IBM say. "Sun holds it all behind the firewall. The community sees nothing," Dan Frye, the IBM vice president who runs the company's Linux Technology Center, said. Sun could do "simple things" to build a real OpenSolaris community if it were serious about doing so, Frye said. "They would push their design discussions out into the forums, so people can see what's going on," he suggested." I talked to one of the OpenSolaris developers at the project's LWCE booth in the "dot-org ghetto," and though it wasn't in response to this article, he pointed out that OpenSolaris takes contributions from all comers, has active public mailing lists, open IRC channels, and several online communities, so Frye's description seems at least overblown.

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Hypocrites... by debilo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If IBM really cared about openness, they should open source AIX or OS/2 and shut up about Solaris.

  2. Typical IBM FUD by cpuh0g · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    What else would you expect from IBM? Their entire Linux strategy is based on the idea of luring people in with Linux and then signing them up for ridiculously overpriced "consulting services' that usually results in a recommendation to purchase their own proprietary hardware running AIX and ever more extensive service contracts and recurring revenue for IBM. They are now seeing customers running Solaris 10 on IBM hardware and more and more requests for Solaris 10 instead of their own stuff and its not a pleasant prospect to see where the trends are heading for IBM.

    When they open AIX and their Power chips like Sun has done with Solaris and SPARC, then they can compare and see how things stack up. For now, its just alot of sour grapes from an aging dinosaur to one that has recently been seen rising up again.