A history of IBM's open-source involvement and strategy

P. G. Capek S. P. Frank S. Gerdt D. Shields IBM has embraced both the concept and the reality of open-source software (OSS). While this may seem surprising for a corporation with a large traditional software business, a path has been pursued allowing the maintenance—indeed, the enhancement—of existing business while deriving benefits from OSS, making significant contributions to several OSS projects, and initiating new ones. We describe some of the considerations which led to this approach, as well as some of the issues that impinge on its execution.