Re: Informix going open source????
I suggested something like this a long time ago (back when Informix was Informix) - of course, nobody listened... I didn't suggest releasing anything as open source, but I suggested that they make Informix SE licenses available for free and make their money on upgrades to Online/IDS. Likewise, make 4GL available to developers for cheap/free and make money on runtimes (although keep them cheap). Informix SE would be great for small installations, and it could have been licensed similar to the way MS licenses MSDE. "rkusenet" <rkusenet@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:2i8tqcFkab80U1@uni-berlin.de... > http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1605396,00.asp > > What is preventing IBM from giving Online 5.20 as open source. > Surely it can outsell MySQL. > > Also when the company outgrows Online 5.20, they can migrate > to IDS, thus generating revenue for IBM. > > >
JJ wrote: > I suggested something like this a long time ago (back when Informix was > Informix) - of course, nobody listened... Not so - at least for the concept of open sourcing some Informix products. (I can't immediately say whether JJ's voice was one of those heard.) The concept was discussed internally, but the revenue stream was sufficiently large that there was no willingness to forego the amount of money that was definitely being brought in by the products (SE and OnLine are the obvious candidates, though ESQL/C would also have to be included) in the hopes of increased revenue on the other products. Not even for the kudos it would have brought to Informix. There were some pragmatic problems too - related to the antiquity of the source code - but the revenue stream was the primary issue. > "rkusenet" <rkusenet@sympatico.ca> wrote: >>http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1605396,00.asp >> >>What is preventing IBM from giving Online 5.20 as open source. >>Surely it can outsell MySQL. >> >>Also when the company outgrows Online 5.20, they can migrate >>to IDS, thus generating revenue for IBM. -- Jonathan Leffler #include <disclaimer.h> Email: jleffler@earthlink.net, jleffler@us.ibm.com Guardian of DBD::Informix v2003.04 -- http://dbi.perl.org/