IBM Exec Sees Open-source Boom in 2006

By Eric Lai

January 30, 2006 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of standards and open-source, expects a number of industries to embrace open-source software in 2006 -- and he expects IBM to play a role in many of those efforts. In an interview with Computerworld last week, Sutor also weighed in on the state of Linux and on Massachusetts' plans to use the XML-based OpenDocument file format.


Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of standards and open-source

What industries do you expect will embrace open-source this year? There will be a continuation in health care and education. I think financial services will have a big year. They're always looking for efficiencies and greater economies of scale. Retail is another area, as we see a lot of standardization work going on there.
We're also starting to see more open-source projects that are specific to a particular industry. The Sakai project in education is a good example. It is basically an ERP system for universities. Instead of managing customers, it manages students and courses and allows information-sharing between colleges and universities.

Why hasn't Linux, with its strengths as a thin-client system, had better success in the retail point-of-sale business? I think as retailers get more creative and start building these "stores of the future," they are going to look for Linux. The price is right, the ability to code on them is right. I wouldn't ask, "How do we get more Linux in retail?" It's, "How do we get it thoroughly open-source and standards-based so there's a level playing field?" That way you can see where open-source makes sense and where proprietary products make sense.
On the Linux server side, we've done some interesting things in stores. There's an RFID project with German retailer Metro AG and SAP AG. Linux servers monitor what's happening on the shelves, like when items are taken off and brought to the register.

What's your prognosis for Linux on the client, especially now that virtualization technologies look to give it a boost? Open Source Development Labs late last year had a meeting to really start to figure out how to converge some of the technologies on the client. Progress is being made, and OSDL has really taken a leadership position on this.

Do you still hold out hope that we'll someday see an open-source Java? I think the way things are going on Apache, we're getting there little by little. We said what we said two years ago because we wanted to get the issues out there and have Sun respond. In different ways, they have

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

An SMB's Guide to ECM Software
Learn how to choose an ECM solution that helps increase productivity, provide better customer service, and automate time-consuming, paper-based processes....

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
Learn best practices for desktop and application virtualization, computer security, and computer life-cycle management....

File Integrity Monitoring: Secure Your Virtual and Physical IT Environments
Learn how integrity monitoring software solutions enable IT organizations to achieve and maintain configuration control. Tripwire® Enterprise is the first solution to effectively...

IDC Webcast: Linux Adoption in a Global Recession
Join Al Gillen from IDC and Michael Applebaum from Novell in this on-demand webcast to see how Linux has emerged as an even...

Enterprise Application Delivery: No User Left Behind
Enterprises need the ability to deliver applications, with the appropriate levels of performance and security to all users, using any device, across any...

Novell Opens PR Video
Is the Linux desktop for me? Customers are looking for ways to be more flexible and save money. Using Linux offers a great...

The CIO's New Guide to Design of Global IT Infrastructure
Is it possible to eliminate the impact of distance? This paper explores the 5 key principles successful CIOs are using to redesign IT...

2 Minutes to IT workload automation
Take just 2 minutes to watch this short CONTROL-M flash video. Well show you how BMC CONTROL-M can put money back into your...

Business Value of Performance IDC Whitepaper
Are you looking for a comprehensive solution that addresses insufficient or congested bandwidth, impaired application performance, slow remote backup and replication or obstacles...

Security Configuration Management
In this web video, follow along with Jim Hansen, Senior Product Manager with Big Fix, as he explains why Security Configuration Management is...

All White Papers | All Webcasts