On 22 Apr 2009 10:01:45 -0700, [email protected] (Tony Harminc) wrote: >Well, Tim's original post was about "What (More) Open Source Software >Do You Want for z/OS?". I can speak only for myself, but when I think >of open source software, I don't mean what IBM has mostly done with >things like the Ported Tools, which is to take open source software >and provide OCO versions for z/OS. What I expect is ported versions >*with source*. Without source, they're only shadows of their former >Open Source selves, that will atrophy unless kept up to date by IBM, >which has notably happened to a number of earlier ports to OCO. While >IBM has unquestionably contributed a huge amount to the open source >community, they have also done their fair share of closing off >existing open source code. IBM has on occasion even hidden such >activities behind the banner of open source, which leaves a bad taste.
Agreed. But selfishly, what I want is for the marketplace to start believing that mainframe computers will be a cost-effective option for much of the software that they are thinking about moving to. For the projected life of that software. More importantly, I want a company that has moved towards "new" technology to believe that his current setup of multiple *nix servers can be upgraded in a cost effective manner to a more secure and faster mainframe system. I don't think most prospective customers even think of mainframes for these technologies, even though they might read that IBM offers *nix. So how will that perception be changed? Maybe Open Source software will help. Maybe it will be an advertisement campaign. (I always wonder how much it helps when IBM or EDS had a great Superbowl ad - when the product costs millions. But I've also seen ads for prescription medicines such as Plavix). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
