IBM Latest News about IBM, Sun Microsystems Latest News about Sun Microsystems and other technology companies recently "donated" portions of their software to the open-source community. But those donations are not motivated by corporate generosity; there are tactics and strategies behind these moves.
"Vendors will use open source Latest News about open source as a competitive weapon, by open-sourcing pieces of technologies for strategic reasons," David Smith, a vice-president at Gartner, told NewsFactor. "Most vendors will use open-source tactics as needed, as part of overall software strategies. Few will have completely open-source oriented strategies."
Self-Serving Motives?
In an effort to gain credibility as vendors that can accommodate open-source systems, suppliers must contribute something of value -- something that is not seen as self-serving, says Dan Kusnetzky, program vice-president of system software for IDC. "If, for example, IBM merely contributed code necessary to allow Linux to run on their zSeries, that might be seen as self-serving and not really helpful to the community as a whole," Kusnetzky told NewsFactor.