Lately, a lot of activity is going on in Linux circles. Novell has become a leading Linux distro vendor, Redhat has raised $600 million in a bond offering, and SCO is making news every day. The article “IBM’s Linux Consolidation Plan” is Latif’s analysis of the consolidation going on behind the scenes.
IBM’s Linux Consolidation Plan
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
a pretty good article.
-Nex6
I like these kind of scenarios about the future of linux… of course, positive ones;) Home it materializes.
:::PROUD TO LIVE IN THE BIRTHLAND OF LINUX:::
If you want to have a signature go to http://slashdot.org. Especially if you want one in all capital letters.
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Never read so much cruft in my life. Its painful reading these articles by people who see linux as a ‘business’. They just dont get it.
It’s about linux consolidation (fewer Linux distro’s/survival of the fittest). For business this is good.
However what the author is tip-toeing around is the fact that the future could very well mean that the Linux distros that don’t get acquired or sponsored by an established corporation will be defunct.
That is market consolidation. It could be good, but it could be a disaster as well.
-Samp0
Very entertaining style. Makes me think of “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”.
Anyway…
“Novell is probably already sifting through Linux code to locate potentially problematic code.”
Why would they spend energy on that. Aren’t you innocent until proven guilty?
The big hole in all of this is what happens when SCO is gone.
Linux is free and Entreprenuers will always have an opportunity here.
What is IBM’s connection to Gentoo? Do they do funding, or have some sort of connection to them somehow?
That was very farfetched.
1. How did the author know Redhat intended to buy SUSE?
2. Makes too much of an issue of ‘indemnification’. Pretty soon, SCOX won’t be around. Their demise will put the fear of IBM in anyone who tries next. Is there anyone else that can make such silly claims? Anyone?
3. Novell will try to acquire Redhat for half a billion?
Please stop abusing mind altering substances.
Editors: Please vet submitted articles for content, as opposed to rambling.
I’m glad what makes Linux strong is not economic “game theories” and/or corporate conspiracies, but freedom and community. It’s surprising the article totally neglected the influence and impact of the “free” community as it tried to analyze the future of Linux.
IBM, company and business tactics will not determine or dictate what becomes of Linux. Linux’ diversity, knowledge base and contributors will. The article depicts Linux as if it can be stirred, owned and manipulated by an entity. But like the IBM advertisement says, “Linux is an orphan”. Nobody and everybody owns it, as paradoxical as that may sound.
Articles like this inspire me to revise the GNU/FSF project thoroughly, as I begin to see the wisdom behind their existence.
Linux is not really a mess, but yes, IBM has moved in just like they moved in on the micro-computer industry (CP/M) 20 years ago. For the last 30+ years, IBM has been in a position both economically and politically to make or break lesser firms in the global high-tech industry, thats more true now than ever. IBM didn’t make an MS mistake, they had every intention of making Gates and Ballmer rich and powerful, and they may well intend to keep them that way. Yes, linux will be implemented in the large scale enterprise space displacing some Win-32 spots, and those customers will probably not have to worry about SCO. MS is moving into the consumer electronics and small to midsize business space and will take share from the big Japanese firms. There is on the horizon, the next monopoly cash cow awaiting, and may have already been awarded to MS and IBM:
http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=52420&subs=0&arc=1
And sports betting globally is big, big business.
It’s also worth noting that a significant chunk of Novell’s customer base is in the public sector, notably law enforcement, military, and prison systems.
Linux is just another fragment in the already oversaturated *nix market right now as it is, and there’s little guarantee that Novell is going to do anything positive here to change that. IMO they already botched one chance at this back when they bought the rights to Unix to begin with, which ultimately led to this horrible mess.
IBM is willing to pay anyone off that can possibly put any sort of a dent in Microsoft’s dominant software market, since they personally gave up any hope of ever competing against them in software a long time ago. But don’t don’t be so sure other giants will be investing directly into a rival company like Novell just to help Linux. These other companies may contribute to the OSDL, but unless Novell is going to give away their best collaborative or authentication technology for Linux to the whole market for free (something their shareholders aren’t going to be fond of them doing), there isn’t much chance of Novell getting checks from other co’s like HP Sun Dell in the mail every month.
More likely is the continued spawn of countless additional versions of Linux throughout the world, making the *nix landscape even more fragmented than it already is, and with more governments making their own “official” version as well. Which is exactly what many in the Linux crowd like about it, the freedom of choice, albeit a catch 22 that will forever prevent it’s widescale adoption of any single standard.
Funny (and understandable) how the public and many users expect Linux to be Just Like Windows, Only Free.
“It must be able to run application X, or I won’t use it.”
“There must only be 1 distribution like Windows, or I won’t use it.”
“The desktop is unusable, because it’s not as easy to use as XP. I still can’t use it.”
“Mozilla or Konqueror is not as fast or easy to use as IE. I can’t use Linux.”
etc. etc.
However, many of the above expectations will not be fulfilled. Linux is not just used as a Windows replacement, it’s used by geeks and open source programmers too. For example, even if there were one distribution that’s _so_ compelling and _so much better_ than the current Fedora/Mandrake/SUSE, there is still the question of focus (desktop-oriented or server-oriented), or license (GPL? BSD-style?), or including-non-free-software policy. Some people would still prefer their distro over another.
5 years down the road we will look back and see someone trying to play God and design the future into a very neat corporate box. There are hundreds and thousands of developers and businesses and universities that have a say in the direction of Linux. IBM, Novell, HP, SUN, RedHat and Oracle combined into one company cannot set the future of Linux in stone.
Nuff said.
– Microsoft Fan
ps) Go leafs, go!
HA ha ha ha- the guy is hilarious!!!!
:::PROUD TO LIVE IN THE BIRTHLAND OF LINUX:::
Ha ha ha ha-the guy is so funny.
:::PROUD TO LIVE IN THE BIRTHLAND OF WINDOWS:::