
277IBM
IBM’s decision in the late 1990s to move away from the applications business, instead partnering
with other software companies, while it builds broader platforms. However, other broad trends in
the software market are more challenging for IBM. Open-source software has been championed by
IBM in its support for the Linux operating system, to challenge Microsoft. However, low-margin
open-source software is moving into other parts of middleware. IBM itself offers open-source
versions of some of its middleware for the low end of the technology market, like application
server software. If more advanced parts of middleware are commoditized, I ...