[NTLUG:Discuss] Speculations about fallout for Linux with the IBM sale?

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Thu, 2004-12-09 at 18:04, Steve Baker wrote:
> Then there were the persistant rumors of IBM and Apple joining forces
> that have been massively stoked by IBM's PC business sell-odd.

IBM provides the PowerPC 970, aka G5, to Apple.
IBM will _not_ enter the retail business, be it x86 or PowerPC, again.

But they _are_ being more "open" with their OEM microelectronics now.
That was the problem with their strategy until recently.

IBM has repeatedly stated in EETimes and other interviews that they
believe 2005 will be the year they start competiting with the "economies
of scale" of AMD and Intel.

> For anyone who was in this business through the 1980's, it's hard to
> imagine a weirder team - but these days, it would actually make a lot
> of sense.

If IBM can find a way to be proprietary hardware again, it will.
But it's cash cow has now become services, and it prefers that model.
Less stock to manage, less suseptibility to changes, more flexibility,
etc...

Heck, they even seem to stay out of software that is not tied to either
their high-end hardware or services.  Hence why they like Linux, they
can leverage the work that has already been done for them.

I don't see that model changing.  At the most, they will make the
Power/PowerPC into a new microelectronics offering for OEMs.  And that's
a smart business model -- they aren't going retail, but they have the
platform to let others.

2005 will be the year we find out of Power/PowerPC will become
commonplace or not.  If it makes 3%, I'd say IBM may be on their way to
their ultimate success of 30% by 2010.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                 b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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