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A possible IBM acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. might have its good points. But users and analysts also have concerns that can be summed up in two words: uncertainty and fear.
Sun may be a diminished company these days, but it remains an influential one. Through its open-source products and [...]

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A takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA) by International Business Machines Inc. (IBM) would offer Big Blue some significant advantages in rounding out its product lineup as it faces down Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and others in the data center market.
Specifically, IBM could benefit from Sun’s work as a leader in open-source software and [...]

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While IBM (NYSE: IBM)’s open source strategies could benefit from an acquisition of Sun Microsystems (NSDQ: JAVA), industry observers believe such a deal would have had more strategic value a few years ago.
Reports that IBM is in talks to buy Sun for $6.5 billion in cash set off a firestorm of skepticism, debate, [...]

Stranger things have happened, but there are several reasons why IBM buying Sun Microsystems could, to borrow a phrase from former Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy, be like two garbage trucks colliding in slow motion.
The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM is in talks to buy Sun for at least $6.5 billion in cash, which [...]

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IBM is reportedly in talks to buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion and the deal is long overdue. The companies mesh on the open source software front, Sun is struggling and IBM can consolidate some server market share.
First, the headlines. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that IBM could acquire Sun as early [...]

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Cisco Systems doesn’t seem to know how to color inside the lines.
The networking-equipment giant has been foraging in a diverse set of new markets lately, taking on Microsoft in the collaboration and unified-communications markets, but now sticking a finger in the eye of longtime server partners Hewlett-Packard and IBM by jumping into the [...]

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Ziff-Davis’ Baseline has a list of eight ways to retain employees in a tough economy. Now, you’d think that no one would be foolish enough to be looking around as the economy bottoms out, but good employees always have options, and good employees are the ones you most want to retain.
Take Sam Ruby, [...]

A comment by frequent contributor JesperFrimann last week caused me to take a closer look at licensing practices among major commercial database vendors other than Microsoft.
All three of the big guys (Oracle, IBM, and Sybase) follow the same basic sales model:
1. publish nominal list pricing only;
2. obfuscate package names, [...]

The open source community is not quite as free-wheeling as it was a decade ago. Now, industry titans like IBM and even one-time nemesis Microsoft are part of the ecosystem, blurring the lines between open and proprietary models.
Not many years ago, the open source software ecosystem and proprietary models might have been thought of as [...]

Nearly half of developers working on open source projects plan to offer applications as web services offerings using cloud providers, according to results of a new Evans Data open source development survey.
The survey found that 40% of developers are on this track. Of these developers, 29% plan to use Google App Engine while 15% intend [...]