Specifications
Forward Thinking
MICHAEL J. MILLER
IBM EXECS SEE THE SOFTWARE industry in
a very different light from
SCO. IBM software
head Steve Mills doesn’t see open-source re-
placing commercial software but rather rais-
ing the bar. “You have to deliver value,” he
says, noting that the open-source Apache
HTTP Server provides basic Web serving
while
IBM’s WebSphere offers much more.
IBM’s “e-business on demand” strategy
calls for providing software services only
when an organization needs them. Central to
Mills’s vision of
IT software is the integration of applica-
tions, middleware, and business processes.
XML is a com-
mon method of tying all of this together, but many other
standards and specifications are needed.
In recent months, Linux has emerged as a
major competitor in servers now that large
organizations such as the New York Stock
Exchange have adopted it and companies
such as
IBM are promoting it. Mills describes
IBM as a “reformed sinner,” no longer offer-
ing just one answer for everyone. It is now
focusing on middleware rather than apps, so
it can be an honest broker. Businesses can
develop the apps they need and then enlist
IBM to integrate them.
The strategy seems to be working.
IBM recently took
over the top spot in databases from Oracle. And with rev-
enues of $13 billion last year,
IBM now sees itself as the sec-
ond-biggest software company in the world.
PC MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 www.pcmag.com
8
BROADBAND EVOLUTION
THE MOVE TO BROADBAND continues to accelerate,
especially among PC Magazine readers. In our current sur-
vey (see page 102), 75 percent of our readers say they have
broadband connections, up from 66 percent just six
months ago. This doesn’t surprise me; once you’re hooked
on broadband, it’s hard to go back. But our survey also
points to one of broadband’s biggest problems: limited
choice. I’m concerned that people have only two broad-
band options: the cable company and the phone company.
This year, our readers’ average satisfaction with their
broadband
ISPs drops from 8.0 to 7.8 on a scale of 1 to 10,
though satisfaction with broadband itself is considerably
higher. The decline may be partially due to people taking
their always-on, fast broadband service for granted. And
readers continue to complain about the rates providers are
charging. That’s to be expected: With scarce competition,
broadband providers can raise their rates.
I’d like to see more competition among cable and phone
providers, perhaps with electric companies or satellite
providers getting more into the market. I’d also like to see
very high-speed connection services. But there’s not a lot
of incentive for such companies in the current economic
and regulatory environment. That’s why it is important for
us to watch the broadband providers carefully and make
sure they continue to offer service at a reasonable price.
MORE ON THE WEB: Join us online and make your voice heard.
Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinions section,
www.pcmag.com
/
miller.
33.6K modem or slower 3% 2% 1%
56K modem 49% 32% 24%
Cable modem 30% 42% 50%
DSL 17% 21% 22%
Wireless local loop 1% 1% 1%
Satellite 1% 1% 1%
ISDN 0% 1% 0%
Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding.
12/01 12/02 6/03
Percent on broadband: 48% 66% 75%
distributor under the GPL, so SCO gave away any rights it
had. He also said that
SCO has seen the code for years but
didn’t raise any copyright issues until now. Mills made clear
that
IBM does not provide a Linux distribution but instead
supports other companies’ distributions. He has seen no
change in customers’ plans due to the
SCO suit.
The case is scheduled to go to court in 2005, and I ex-
pect that a resolution will take years. In the meantime,
IBM
will continue to support Linux, and SCO is threatening
legal action against Linux users. But Sontag says that
SCO
isn’t going after Red Hat now, because that “would kill
Linux,” which
SCO doesn’t want to do.
This controversy is likely to worry some big Linux cus-
tomers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big company pay
SCO a license fee (SCO wants $700 for a single-CPU
license) just to avoid a lawsuit. And I expect the open-
source community to pull together quickly to try to figure
out who wrote each section of the Linux kernel distribu-
tion and remove or rewrite the controversial code. This
will take many months, but it’s the prudent thing for the
community to do.
So far, the winners are the companies that recently paid
license fees to
SCO: Microsoft and Sun. And the big losers?
All those people who installed Linux thinking they were
getting a legal open-source operating system and now have
to worry about whether it was indeed too good to be true.
What kind of access do you use?
IBM
36%
NCR
3%
Other
9%
Oracle
34%
Microsoft
18%
RELATIONAL DATABASE
MARKET SHARE
Based on new-license revenues worldwide
in 2002. Source: Gartner, 2003.
IBM TAKES ON THE WORLD
RELATIONAL DATABASE
MARKET SHARE