On Thu, Jun 30, 2005, Omer Zak wrote about "MF vs. LAMP - orthogonal to closed vs. Free (was: Re: Off topic - open vs. closed sources Re: compiling expect sources or easy to use c++ engine?)": > Nowadays, IBM is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) supporters of > Linux developments. They are in the business of tailoring solutions for > customers, rather than selling shrink-wrapped software. Therefore, > using Linux and Linux-based software makes a lot of business sense for > them.
Actually, that is not as simple as it sounds. First, the plain fact is that most software that IBM is currently involved in is NOT open source or free software. Second, IBM has to face, and in the future this will become even more urgent, the problem of how to avoid making a complete transformation from a research and development company, into a low profit margin "chevrat co'ach adam" (how do you say that in English?). It is not clear that it is in IBM's (and other companies, like Nzer's) best interests to stop hiding their home-grown software, and instead to just get paid, by-hour of support person, for the specific fixes and upgrades the users want. Like Nzer said, there's a limit to what you can charge for an expert's hour (if you overcharge, they'll just find a cheaper expert), while there's almost no limit to what you can charge for new software. Obviously, the "IBMs" and similar companies of the world will need to face competition from some small company that comes to a customer and tells him "We can install for you a piece of free software, and only charge you half what you pay now - we will modify this software software to fit exactly what you need". And indeed, such companies are appearing and causing headaches to companies that want to keep their old marketing techniques. But apparently, these headaches are not (yet?) big enough to force the entire market to change its ways. -- Nadav Har'El | Thursday, Jun 30 2005, 23 Sivan 5765 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |----------------------------------------- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |The socks in my drawer are like http://nadav.harel.org.il |snowflakes: No two are alike. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
