IBM’s software for biz desktops: sort of open, sort of free
By Gareth Powell
IBM is going to offer a sort of new sort of open source software system for business desktops. This is, of course, a direct challenge to Microsoft and, depending how far it goes, to several other major players as well.
The plan is called the Open Client Offering which will no doubt get known as Oco. It has Lotus Notes which IBM owns and which is not open source although it is free and Sametime software for e-mail, calendar and messaging. Then there is WebSphere software for server-based applications plus a special version of the open-source OpenOffice.org software suite.
Finally, Lotus Expeditor for hybrid applications that can run either when a computer is connected to the network or not. So what IBM had done is taken some software some of which is open source and stuck it together. Much of it is IBM/Lotus and this will not be an easy mix to set up and maintain.
Forbes, which has a leaning this way, makes much mock and puts the boot in early in the piece. Its coverage starts: ‘What do you do when you’re trying to put a fresh look on a 20-year-old e-mail system? Well, if you’re IBM, you start calling it Open Client; you hype it as being Linux-related; and you throw in a bunch of smack-talk about helping poor, oppressed customers throw off the yoke of Microsoft.’
The article ends: ‘The best line in the entire press release is the last one, where IBM says the Open Client is currently available and “priced according to customer requirements.”‘
It is quite a splendidly vicious and biased article but, sadly, it contains a large amount of truth. It refers to the truly woeful IBM challenge to Windows, OS/2, which was one of the most user-hateful pieces of software ever written. And died. The illustration, incidentally, came up in Google when the search term ‘IBM desktop’ is typed in. Not sure what it is about but it is from DeviantArt which has a fine sense of humor.
Scott Handy, vice president of Linux and open source at IBM, said, ‘We worked with the open source community and found a way to write software once that will work regardless of operating system. It will run on Windows, Macintosh or Linux.’
Yes, but is it open software in the sense that it can be modified? Mostly not.
IBM is quite open that it wants to takeover the business desktop from Microsoft. Scott Handy said, ‘In big organizations, a large, double-digit percentage of users don’t require Windows Office suite licenses, meaning they can save a lot of money.’
Should this worry Microsoft? No. If IBM was offering true open source software then Redmond would be full of harried looking executives sorting out new plans. But IBM is not doing that. Anything with Lotus attached is proprietary. NOT open source although it will run on different operating systems. And I would hate to think of the problems some users will have with Lotus Notes.
My guess is that this is but a first step. That the software houses are realizing that the golden days are gone and that open source software is going to be a real challenge. One shop will offer truly open source software in the fullest meaning of that term. Then, and only then, will Microsoft be seriously worried.
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February 26th, 2007
I don’t have a comment on the article sorry… just… That’s my desktop. I’m the DA member that came from! In my case IBM stands for Itty Bitty Mouse - just so you know :D