IBM, as a huge empire (bigger than Microsoft), uses GPLed linux as the
operating system of its mainframe computers. How does this make sense?
It is quite easy. Although IBM makes some money from software licensing,
it makes much more from services and hardware sales. The use of Linux
means that most of the development work for the operating system is
done without IBM dollars.
Note that IBM also contributes to the open source community. For example,
IBM has announced that it opens software patents for use in open source
projects. IBM also directly contributes code to Linux and other open
source projects.
HP followed suit and switched their mainframe computers to use Linux.
Copyright © 2006-07-05 by Tak Auyeung
