This article on
BusinessWeek seems to be missing the really big point behind
IBM's patent announcments. If I remember correctly, and I may not be 100% accurate but I am in the ball park, IBM currently generates about 50% (actually I think it is a bit more) of its total revenue from selling services. As I mentioned in
another post, open source software is becoming a key driver for the services business. Soooooo... if you make most of your money from selling services, anything that bolsters the software community that creates that software is a good thing since they typically create software that will require services to get running and to support.
While the spin may be the IBM is just one be Care Bear of Coding Love, in reality its moves are all about making money. And that is as it should be for a public company (within reason for you anti-biz folks). Again, customers are being given a choice between solutions that are primarily software/technology solutions or ones that are primarily service solutions. Take your pick - you can pay me now or pay me later.
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