Rational Software Corp is joining Big Blue’s stable of industry leaders-turned-business units after IBM announced its $2.1bn acquisition of the application modeling and design specialist. […] The news is a blow to Microsoft Corp, which on Friday conceded executives had “talked internally” about an acquisition of Rational. Rational’s XDE software modeling tool, launched in February, sat inside Microsoft’ Visual Studio.NET integrated development environment (IDE) in addition to IBM’s WebSphere. Read the article at ComputerWire.
Microsoft Loses .NET Ally Rational to IBM
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Now all I’m asking for is Purify for FreeBSD.
This is IBMs way of getting back at MS for stabbing IBM in the back with their OS/2 deal.
Always did like Big Blue…..
“Always did like Big Blue…..”
Huh, really? Did you like them when they were the monopoly vendor for some 20 years? You people have a really short memory. IBM supports Linux and everyone thinks they are a friend of open source. Keep fooling yourselfs.
What makes them money? Consulting and Mainframes.
Do they give away software for free, not the last time I checked. In fact their websphere products is one of the most expensive.
Lotus Notes, opensource? I think not.
Are you that jaded that any company that competes with Microsoft is great? I sat in on a meeting with IBM about 10 years ago where they threatened a Sr. VP of my company that they would be fired if they didn’t buy an IBM mainframe instead of a competitors. Yeah, IBM sure is great.
You’ve never been a customer of Big Blue, have you? There “Consulting and Mainframe” services are head and shoulders above anything you can get from any other vendor. When was the last time you has a CE or SE drop by just to see how things are going? Yes it’s expensive, but people are getting what they pay for. Can you say that about MS?
I sat in on a meeting with IBM about 10 years ago where they threatened a Sr. VP of my company that they would be fired if they didn’t buy an IBM mainframe instead of a competitors.
That was the bad old, arrogant IBM that once dominated the computing industry the way Microsoft does now. They cleaned out top management in the early ’90s after massive layoffs and humongous financial losses. The new guys (I’m talking especially about the CTO/tech strategist types) seems to be very forward looking – IBM played a huge role in legitimizing Java and Linux for enterprise customers. Of course, they charge a lot for their software because they have mammouth R&D operations to fund.
“Did you like them when they were the monopoly vendor for some 20 years? ”
Yep…not quite 20 years for me, but close.
Very first “real” computer I worked on was an IBM 3090 and then an ES/9000.
“Are you that jaded that any company that competes with Microsoft is great? ”
Sorry, I’m not one of those Linux loving MS haters; I just have an appreciation for what IBM have done and what they can do.
I don’t give a rats ass about Open Source…I use what works, whether it’s an open-source or black box solution.
“That was the bad old, arrogant IBM that once dominated the computing industry the way Microsoft does now. They cleaned out top management in the early ’90s after massive layoffs and humongous financial losses.”
Rumour was that a lot of those arrogant folks that got laid off from IBM in the early 90’s ended up working for Microsoft.
The tactics MS has used in the past decade seem to jive with that.
I was an IBM OS/2 developer for many years (in my banking days in the early 90s), and I’ve been a Rational Rose user for many years. I put up with the shockingly poor quality of the releases from Rational (amazing, given that the RUP was one of their flagship products), excusing it on the grounds that it was better than anything else at the time (something that became less and less easy to bear). Finally, I’d given up – I last renewed my Rose maintenance 18 months ago or so – although XDE seemed pretty neat (although not $4k per developer neat). We’d changed the development process anyway, such that we only used UML where additional documentation was required, rather than as a necessary, detailed pre-requisite for coding. Once upon a time, MS shipped a cut-down version of Rose with V.Studio for that purpose, and now they ship Visio. Fine by me; Visio crashes marginally less often!
So that’s my background with Rational. How do I feel about the news that IBM have bought them? Well, I no longer have much to do with IBM’s software division, but if I did, I think I would be pleased; this has been an element of IBM’s portfolio that has been missing for years (I was a beta-tester on a VisualAge UML product in about 93 that never saw the light of day, AFAIK).
As to whether it will make any difference to the industry as a whole? Well, no. But I’d like to hear the opinion of other Rational users.
instant friends ;o)
But my opinion re. IBM + Linux is, IBM is too compromised with Microsoft to go with Linux with all it’s heart. Just look at how many Windows licenses does IBM sell (on their laptops) compared to Linux.
And I don’t believe, at all, that IBM bought Rational to get back at MS, neither do I think MS cares. MS has always developed and sold it’s own devtools, and having one competitor off the market suits them just fine, I’m afraid.
Does that count? Anyway, I think I’ll just wait and see. I already expressed, in another thread, the wish that the new management at Rational would concentrate on improving the Unix client of CC, ‘coz it’s way too lacking in features, compared to the Win32 client. If that happens on both HP-UX and Solaris (our platforms), I’ll conclude that his was, overall, a good move. I guess you would say the same if Rose’s stability increased as a result of this aquisition.
AFAIK Rational has two major divisions – a Massachusetts operation that maintains ClearCase and the hq group in Silicon Valley, which develops the UML and IDE integration stuff (and sports the “three amigos” of UML publishing fame, or did — don’t know if they’re all still around). I suspect that ClearCase accounts for better than half the value of the deal, although clearly the IDE stuff was also attractive to IBM.
I don’t use Rose myself. If it’s as buggy as people claim, I wouldn’t be surprised if IBM assigns one of their other groups the job of rewriting it.
Ah, those were the days. I remember decommissioning an old reader/sorter to install a ‘new’ 3090, only to discover many thousands of dollars of unprocessed checks underneath it. Remember to check your statements, folks!
ClearCase – I knew there was another important Rational product that I didn’t use.
Again, this fits very nicely into IBM’s portfolio.
MS – yes I agree. MS, as I understand it, admitted to thinking of buying Rational *some time ago*. I guess not needing/wanting to own ClearCase and the shoddiness of Rose put them off (at the asking price), and directed them at Visio, which also offered a broader range of general facilities, at the expense of ‘hardcore’ UML. (*disclaimer* Pure speculation on my part).
Whilst Rational are a VSIP, and have integrated XDE into the .NET IDE, calling them a “.NET ally” is going a bit strong, though!
Right they have Visio, and they already have a software configuration tool (Visual SourceSafe). Comparing SourceSafe to ClearCase, though, reminds me of the story of the Xerox brass making a visit to PARC in the late ’70s to see a demo of the Alto workstation. They called back the team’s leader and said “that stuff’s pretty neat, but our group in Texas is working on something similar and we think it’s even better.” Turns out they were talking about a word processor.
>>”Always did like Big Blue…..”
>>Huh, really? Did you like them when they were the monopoly vendor for some 20 years? You people have a really short memory. IBM supports Linux and everyone thinks they are a friend of open source. Keep fooling yourselfs.
no – you keep fooling yourself. if you can’t understand that times change, and that your mortal enemy today, can become your ally tomorrow, and then your enemy again nextweek…
you are deadmeat.
life.
adapt or die.
It’s not about Microsoft, it’s about Sun.
IBM and BEA are busy buying java tool developers left and right. Oracle is busy doing their own java stuff too. Meanwhile SUN is in 4th place in the jave market.
Sun should be working on their java stuff instead of launching stupid lawsuits against microsoft.
Sure, when I worked at IBM in the early 90’s they were losing a billion (B) dollars a year and still under monolopy restrictions from the 60’s. Why does the US government allow Microsoft to run over the monopoly laws that have been in place for about a hundred years? They bought off the crooked Congress and House. The stupid part is people voted for crooks.
I say great for IBM, they pay a dividend on their stock. Their products work. They back their products. I hope they continue to do good work and treat people well. We need more companies like that!