A significant event in open source history…
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/10/28/1859245/ibm-to-buy-red-hat-the-top-linux-distributor-for-34-billion
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-acquires-red-hat/
For German speaking folks, there’s also this news item: <https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Mega-Deal-IBM-uebernimmt-Red-Hat-4205582.html>.
[HR][/HR]My twopence worth:
- Once again, the “How to finance Open-Source” issue …
Which ever way one looks at the issue, AFAICS, the bottom lines are:
“Who pays for the capital investment in the distribution’s servers and their running costs?”
“Who pays for the staff needed to maintain the distribution?”
“Who pays for the funding needed for the distribution’s documentation?”
[HR][/HR]My thoughts on “Big Blue” funding Open-Source:
- IBM has a history of supporting Open-Source – one example: “ImageMagick” – and, there’s this: <https://developer.ibm.com/open/>.
- That IBM is still alive and kicking is nothing short of a miracle – they still have 22 sales offices here in Germany …
- SUSE® is active in supplying Linux for the IBM Z-Series …
- IBM had/(still has) a major influence on everything related to Software Architecture, Software Engineering, Software Inspection and Software Test …
- Like it or not, “the Cloud” mostly relies on Open-Source …
This really is huge. I wonder how it will work out and also I don’t envy people working for RedHat at the moment 
I’m expecting this to work out well.
IBM has a mixed history. But it has long supported open source activities. Even its big iron depended on SHARE, which was an early open source organization.
These days, IBM is mainly selling support services. So buying RedHat makes a lot of sense for them.
Your opinion on this news?
Who are you asking?
Having worked for Big Blue for nearly 40 years in software prior to retirement I am optimistic it will go well. It’s always worrying for employees of the taken over company but having seen how it has worked in the past I think it’ll be ok.
Stuart
In other words, during the period 1979 to 1988, we were competitors … >:)I worked for DEC UK South East …
I’m asking for an opinion, to those who have an opinion, this news is good, or it’s bad.
Do you have any opinion about it?
My opinion remains: “Open Source” needs funding; “Open Source” ain’t free as in “Free Beer” or a “Free Lunch”; without funding, “Open Source” will cease to exist …
[HR][/HR]Regarding “IBM” as being good or bad:‘Broadstairs’ and myself have both had intimate contact with “Big Blue”: ‘Broadstairs’ worked for them; I had them as a (major) competitor …
- From an engineering view point, IBM is a valued influence on software quality and software engineering and, from a business view point, they’ve always played the “business game” hard but, fair …
Which begs the question: “Is business good or bad?” – My answer: “Without business and trade, human communities wouldn’t be what they are.”
Therefore: “Is this news good or bad?” – My answer: “Neither: it has simply changed the business view of Open Source … ”
Yes, it changes the business view of open source.
I’m inclined to think that is good news for linux users, and bad news for Microsoft. But I could be wrong.
I think that sums it up perfectly…
Stuart
Thank you for your opinion, I hope it is good for those people working in Red Hat
IBM playing fair is not my view point at all. It was pretty famous case at least here in Poland (and it happened in some other countries as far I know):
The opinion I like the most on this takeover is the one I’ve seen on lwn.net comments 
IBM acquiring Red Hat [LWN.net]
Just another area where SUSE is clearly leading the way!
We’ve been acquired - what? - three times now? With one more looming.
Redhat has a lot of catching up to do
LOL! I had similar thoughts.
Same here. Guess the thought behind it is that something completely different from the sale of SUSE might happen. Something more in the direction of Sun - Oracle, where parts of RedHat will be move to be IBM divisions. If the latter is going to be the case ( I haven’t run into IBM / RH statements re. Fedora for example, like the ones SUSE and it’s buyers sent out immediately after the news went out ), things are going to be different for Fedora as a community. Mind, these are my thoughts, not some FUD based on rumours.
On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:06:03 +0000, Knurpht wrote:
> deano_ferrari;2884946 Wrote:
>> LOL! I had similar thoughts.
>
> Same here. Guess the thought behind it is that something completely
> different from the sale of SUSE might happen. Something more in the
> direction of Sun - Oracle, where parts of RedHat will be move to be IBM
> divisions. If the latter is going to be the case ( I haven’t run into
> IBM / RH statements re. Fedora for example, like the ones SUSE and it’s
> buyers sent out immediately after the news went out ), things are going
> to be different for Fedora as a community. Mind, these are my thoughts,
> not some FUD based on rumours.
I don’t know that there’s anything IBM or RedHat could/would do regarding
Fedora - since (like openSUSE), it’s not the vendor’s product, but a
community effort (but with some employee involvement, no doubt), the
community could continue the effort on their own. But I also think that
if they did do something negative to the project, that would have
consequences to IBM/RedHat, just as it would if SUSE decided to stop
supporting openSUSE.
The distributions that I’m more interested in the affects are CentOS and
Oracle Linux/Unbreakable Linux, which are rebranded RHEL (well,
Unbreakable is Oracle’s version of RHEL with a more modern kernel - RHEL
uses 3.10 or something ancient like that).
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
Am NON-Technical, thanks to all those here am able to do more than I expected.
Our world changes every day, people adapt well by sharing, long been a common practice to share, to assist others with knowledge, capabilities, strengths, the appropriate term is reciprocity.
*“Law, contract, and economic rationality and prosperity…. must as well be leavened with reciprocity, moral obligation, duty toward community, and trust…. The latter are not anachronisms in a modern society but rather the sine qua non of the latter’s success”
- *Yoshihiro Francis "Frank" Fukuyama*
-
Fukuyama, F (1996). *Trust: the Social Virtues and Creation of Prosperity. London: Free Press. ] *
Exchange of services has long been part of society, many choose not to do things, selecting others to provide the service.
Equitable financial exchange for service is the trend replacing slavery.
To employ others to do some of the work required enables greater efficiency, provided is recognition of contribution from others to development, a role for commercial firms in linux development and marketing shall continue.
When greed seeks dominance, revolts occur.
.
“Big Blue” used to have a reputation of paying quite well – they used to have enough income to support their staff’s salaries – the only downside was a strict dress code for the IBM staff who had face-to-face customer contact – I’ve no idea if that’s still the case …
I visited the Poughkeepsie IBM site a bit over 30 years ago.
Everybody was wearing a fancy suit –
except for one person. He was dressed very casually, long beard, hippie look. It turned out that he was their main systems operator, who kept the systems running.