EXCLUSIVE: IBM accuses rivals of Linux 'blind spot'

A senior IBM executive has warned arch-rivals Microsoft and Sun that they're "fighting fate" by refusing to embrace the open source movement.

In an exclusive interview with Silicon.com, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technlogy and strategy, enterprise systems group, IBM, said: "Monopolies were okay before, but we've seen the future, and it's not that. These hierarchical, proprietary companies are trying to kill each other in the market, and Linux offers an alternate vision of the world."

He added: "Generally in a proprietary world, a vendor will do everything possible to stop applications moving off its platform. The number one problem of the Internet is the complexity of software development and the huge amount of energy wasted on unnecessary porting. Linux is a breath of fresh air."

In January, IBM announced all its hardware platforms - from the Netfinity server to the S/390 mainframe - will run Linux as the common OS alongside its own range of operating systems.

Linux is also scheduled to replace the as yet unreleased Project Monterey, a multimillion pound project to combine SCO Unix and AIX on an Intel 64 architecture.

Wladawsky-Berger said: "In time Linux will take over Unix on the Intel space." However, he said Monterey is an important stop-gap measure, as Linux on IA64 could be five years away.

Jon Collins, senior analyst at Bloor Research, said IBM's Project Monterey partner, SCO, is also diversifying. "The operating system can no longer be the flagship product," Collins said. "SCO is moving towards OS agnosticism as well. It's a hard decision for a company to take."

Collins added that no OS vendor will escape.

"Microsoft in the future will come up against the situation where people will not be prepared to pay for operating systems. They probably have another two, three or even four years left in this market, but it's not going to last forever," he said.