Slashdot Mirror
EU Launches Antitrust Investigation Against IBM
FlorianMueller writes "The European Commission announced today that it has launched two parallel antitrust investigations into IBM's mainframe practices, following complaints lodged by T3 Technologies last year and French open source startup TurboHercules in March. EU regulators suspect an abuse of a dominant position and illegal tying of IBM's mainframe hardware to its proprietary mainframe operating system z/OS. There's even the possibility of a third case based on a complaint filed very recently by NEON, and the DoJ is also looking into this matter. IBM now finds itself in a situation previously experienced by Microsoft and Intel. This may also affect IBM's credibility when lobbying in the EU for open standards."
Reader coondoggie points out a response from IBM saying that the accusations are being driven by Microsoft and other competitors.
The fact that the European Commission has opened an investigation shows that there are serious issues involved. The launch of the investigation isn't a final ruling, but that type of decision isn't taken unless there's a lot of hard facts on the table.
So, as a minor side effect, today's announcement calls into question the accurancy and relevance of the things PJ claimed. She made TurboHercules out to be unreasonable. But TurboHercules just asked IBM for something that's in the interest of competition and innovation, and if the Commission viewed it differently (or if the Commission viewed this as simply a Microsoft initiative), the full-blown investigation wouldn't have been launched today.
Show me in witting, on the IBM web site, where their software can not be run on mainframes built by other manufacturers. I don't want your blog, I want IBM official restrictions. Otherwise, your a troll. Nothing more, nothing less.
Read the European Commission's press release. You can be sure they read the z/OS licensing terms, and they have the expertise to interpret those.
What if you have a monopoly on supercool (not the liquid nitrogen variety) computers? Why is it ok to tie your hardware to your software then?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS