I have a feeling that licensing issues for third party components would kill such an idea, but i am surprised I haven’t seen more calls to action in that regard.
There is a ton of capability in OS/2, which anyone building operating systems is likely to find useful. IBM may have promised a few open source OS patent protections, but handing over OS/2 to the world would be far more useful in driving OS development.
I realize that IBM has done well out of maintenance fees, supporting customers long after OS/2 was “dead”. I also realize that it now wants to manage an orderly transition to Linux for OS/2 (banking) and 4690 (retail), and that open sourcing OS/2 might hamper migration offers. “oh no the community will support it…”
With Longhorn coming down the pike, its time for IBM to get serious about open source OS design.
It seems the OS/2 community is calling for OSS/2 with a petition. [via Stacey Cowley at IDG].
I have recently been calling open source “instant escrow” – come on IBM, give it up.
You have aknowledged that the world isn’t going to be one great portal jamboree, through your Workplace strategy. So why not drive some client OS innovation? I bet Lenovo might even help with such a project.
IBM you need to get with the program. Start thinking of the Long Tail of software development. That’s where OS/2 fits, but you need to empower communities to populate niches and find use cases and reuse opportunities.
If anyone should understand Long Tail IT economics its IBM. Nobody else supports so many weird environments. Why not enlist communities to help?
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