I do not have any direct stake in the FLEX-ES vs IBM issue, but I have been surprised that there does not seem to be much speculation on why IBM is dropping the FLEX-ES connection; just complaints that they are doing so ... Is the reason only known to a few IBM executives? . To fill the void, I offer the following speculative reasons: . 1. Complaint: Fundamental Software is doing something that IBM does not like ... This is probably not the reason, because if it was IBM would state it. . 2. Economic: The IBM bean-counters have made a cold calculation that they would make more money if Flex-Es was gone. Maybe having a lot of developers out there causes competition for IBM tools software(?). Maybe IBM would make more revenue by forcing at least some of the folks who now use Flex-Es to buy 'real' hardware(?). . 3. Legal: The IBM lawyers have decided that the company would do better in court if they adopt a simple 'no emulation' stance. In that way they can better confront any attempts by competitors to sell emulated mainframes. . 4. Openness: IBM has decided, based on their Linux experience, that being proprietary is 'old school' and, in order to revitalize the mainframe they have to open it up. Of course, in order to do so, they have to gently let down any partners who are tied to the old school paradigm, such as Fundamental ... However, once this transition period is over they will: (a) Make source available and back off of the OCO policy. (b) Provide some sort of option for hobbyist/developer licenses that allows running on, for example, Hercules. (c) Provide other options such as free unsupported experimental versions of the operating system (ala Red Hat) ... (Mr. Palmisano, tear down this wall!).
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