On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:31:16 -0500, John P. Baker wrote: >I know that there are a lot of people who disagree with IBM in its ongoing >dispute with PSI, but I feel that IBM is on solid ground. PSI didn't spend >tens of billions of dollars on R&D. IBM did. IBM should not have to give >the fruits of those efforts to a latecomer looking to make a quick buck.
The money which IBM spent on R&D came from the sales of mainframe computers to the companies which run the banking, transportation, manufacturing, and administrative systems which we all rely on. The revenues of those companies comes from the users of those systems. IBM didn't pay for the R&D. We did. S/390-based technology is critical to the functioning of our society. IBM does not have the right to keep society-critical technology secret, nor to hold society to ransom by preventing competitors from producing compatible systems. We have a right to expect that the hardware and software to drive these critical systems will always remain available. A competitive marketplace with a choice of suppliers is the way to ensure that the continued availability of mainframe technology is not dependent on the short-term interests of IBM profitability. For many years I trusted IBM to honour its obligations to society. Recent events led me to believe that this trust was misplaced. When IBM pulled the rug out from under the independent software vendors in the autumn of 2006, because the emulation technology in their IBM-supplied development systems got in the way of the IBM vs PSI litigation, it showed that however benevolent IBM may appear to be, in the end IBM's interests override those of the customer. Ref: http://www.tech-news.com/another/ap200703b.html Ref: http://www.tech-news.com/another/ap200704b.html Regards, Roger Bowler http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rbowler Hercules "the people's mainframe" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
