On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, Joseph Dal Molin wrote:
...
> IBM releases its development tool kit as open source....as you have
> noted...Apache and the Linux Kernel are not applications like a hospital
> information system

Joseph,
  It seems that you missed my point, which is:

"Where does open source software typically come from"
  Apache, Linux, and several open source health care applications that
I gave as examples all come from in-house development rather than outside
vendors. That was the point that I tried to make.

  The fact that IBM has released some open source tools does not conflict
with my statement that, so far, _open source software typically do not
come from third-party open-source software developers_.

> your rationale for excluding IBM as an open source developer needs a
> better foundation.

You misunderstood.

see here:

> > Adrian,
> >   I just don't know whether IBM could count as a "open-source software
> > system developer". Bill Steagall covered mostly IBM hardware and a little
> > about the Eclipse tool platform (www.eclipse.org). I guess when IBM
> > produces an open source hospital information system for UCLA, your example
> > will be appropriate.

My point was that IBM is not a good example of a typical open source
software developer. I did say things may change - but let's get down to
discussing why IBM has not released an open source health information
system yet, AND what has to happen for them to take that step.

my next sentence was:

> >   I do think so far, open source software _typically_ come from in-house
> > development (e.g. VistA, OSCAR, TkFP, Apache, Linux kernel, OIO, GnuMed).

Now, the really useful part of the discussion is the following:

> > Maybe this will change. Maybe you have some reasonable speculations on why
> > this will change?

I can think of many reasons why this would be very useful (e.g. for IBM to
develop open source hospital information systems). I don't think this is
analogous to Microsoft producing/releasing an open source operating
system. IBM will still be able to make money from providing service and
selling hardware.

I am most interested in your thoughts.

Best regards,

Andrew
---
Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
www.TxOutcome.Org


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