[vox] Why open source?

[Larry]

At 11:27 AM -0800 12/2/03, kulkarni veena wrote:

>  Hi All,

>  This might seem to be a trivial question for this forum.

>  But I would like to get a better understanding about open source and
>  why would big corporations like IBM etc would want to support open
>  source?

Without software, the coolest hardware is worthless.

It seems that hardware companies, like IBM, would want good and
abundant (and cheap) software that evolves in the real world to show
off their hardware and add value to the product.

IBM (and several other big corporations) have gotten badly spanked for
their software efforts a few times. OS2 & Taligent come to mind.

These two links may be of interest historically. The first tells the
story of the PINK projects and reveals some of the difficulties with
software development.
http://www.livingstonmontana.com/access/dan/177aimalliances.html

This link is a book called _In_The_Beginning_Was_The_Command_Line_ and
is good read for many reasons. Software and entertainment included.
http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml

Maybe hardware companies like IBM see Open Source as a way to
externalize their software development while creating real-world
software that evolves and continues to add value to their hardware
products. Maybe it's as simple as partially externalizing their
software development costs for the products needed to enable their
hardware offerings.

Software companies (such as Microsoft) don't favor Open Source, for the
obvious reason that it competes with their overpriced and frequently
inferior products.

that's my two cents....

Larry