Open Source Needs Big Vendors To Thrive, Ellison Says

The success of Linux and other open source projects has depended heavily on the support and investment of major IT companies, Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said on Thursday. "Open source becomes successful when major industrial corporations invest heavily in that open source project," Ellison said at a Tokyo news conference. "Every open source product that has become tremendously successful became successful because of huge dollar investments from commercial IT operations like IBM and Intel and Oracle and others," he said. He highlighted his own company's work in developing and promoting Linux, and said the operating system would not have enjoyed the success that it has without vendor backing. "There's a lot of romantic notions about open source," Ellison said. "That just from the air these developers contribute and don't charge. Let me tell you the names of the companies that developed Linux: IBM, Intel, Oracle -- not a community of people who think everything should be free. Open source is not a communist movement."


Source - Info World