Comment Re:Looking the gift horse in the mouth (Score 1) 205
Well, yes there is a price to IBM's commmitment to OSS. By extending IBM into the fold there is a possiblity that they could drop it's OSS projects sometime, but that can't affect the viability of them.
They could change a OSS project they started to closed source, but I'm sure it would be re-implemented in an open source fashion by someone else, if it was really important. They could totally walk away, but that wouldn't matter, because Linux/OSS would continue anyways, just like it always has.
So, the real price is dealing with the fear of accepting IBM as a partner, even though it may have a sordid past, and is a succesful products & services business that generates large revenues, and that can be scary to developers that are used to creating on their own, in their community. Sure, IBM would look to find angles for it to get income from Linux based platforms, but so is every other Linux/OSS company.
They could change a OSS project they started to closed source, but I'm sure it would be re-implemented in an open source fashion by someone else, if it was really important. They could totally walk away, but that wouldn't matter, because Linux/OSS would continue anyways, just like it always has.
So, the real price is dealing with the fear of accepting IBM as a partner, even though it may have a sordid past, and is a succesful products & services business that generates large revenues, and that can be scary to developers that are used to creating on their own, in their community. Sure, IBM would look to find angles for it to get income from Linux based platforms, but so is every other Linux/OSS company.
