> "If IBM was smart ..." IBM is smart.
Including its direct antecedents, IBM has been in business since 1888 and still develops and markets leading edge technology. It would be fun to see if Microsoft (founded 87 years after IBM) is still around in 2092. zSeries just closed its best MIPS quarter and second best revenue quarter ever. I've had the pleasure of talking with (and occasionally arguing with) every current senior IBM executive except Sam Palmisano. I can promise you - they are not dumb. I may disagree with some of their strategies (Java, Linux and software charging in various details) but they have well thought out positions and they are very difficult to better in debate. Bill Zeitler, for my money, beats Linda Sanford by a hair - and both have in the past had sole responsibility for zSeries - it's where IBM puts its best executives. (Latest is Jim Stallings, BTW. Not announced yet.) If you ascribe any IBM action or inaction to dumbness, then you have not made an adequate attempt to understand its position. I fear it is now much too late for Hercules. Back when it started I tried to persuade Jay and others that their strategy would not work as they were pursuing it. They seemed to have convinced themselves that IBM could somehow be forced to co-operate and that this was an inevitable consequence of the "open source" nature of the project. You would have to convince a chain of people, some of whom would swap jobs during the process, that what you wanted to do would both benefit each of their individual objectives and also present zero risk to a revenue stream that basically carries the company. It might look to you like a simple little agreement that releases z/OS to run in your bedroom for private purposes, but to IBM it's another form of license agreement that has to go right through legal processes and then to the executive committee. That costs money and lawyer time - probably millions of dollars - and then the final decision weighs the billions of dollars IBM earns against the risk of a new form of licensing. How many more decisions would go in favour of IBM middleware over a five-year period and what extra revenue would come in? On what do you base those numbers? I can promise you that the Partnerworld team have to continually rejustify the AD/CD - there are many who regard software development as "production" for a software house. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
