An interesting story in today’s PC Pro email newsletter about a difference of opinion:
Open-source has gained so much momentum of late that one might ask where all the developers needed for these new projects are coming from.
Microsoft’s Nick McGrath, head of platform strategy for Microsoft in the UK recently told us that despite many big commercial companies now professing their commitment to Linux and open-source in general, the likes of IBM have just ‘handfuls’ of developers working in the arena.
Adam Jollans is IBM’s Worldwide Linux Software Marketing Strategy Manager, and begged to differ. ‘Right now, our Linux technology centre is about 800 strong – developers paid by IBM working directly on open source projects,’ he said.
He said this had doubled in the course of a couple of years and that overall there were 8,000 to 9,000 IBM employees working on the company’s Linux strategy.
A case of Microsoft saying what they hoped was true, rather than reflecting what is actually the case, I fear. As a fan of open-source software I feel encouraged that such giant corporations, such as IBM, are so committed to open-source projects.
