"This is the most substantial contribution to the kernel that has been made by an ISV," says Gupta. "Among large software companies we are the most committed to the open source movement."
CA has also worked on various open source projects including the Apache Web server, JBoss application server, Zope Web content management system, and the Plone document management software.
Despite these efforts, Red Monk's Governor says CA has not yet won the hearts and mind of the open source community. "I haven't seen CA's commitment translated into groundswell of support from the open source community," he says. "I think this is because Ingres is a defensive move and it is charging a fair amount for its tools on Linux. The pricing models [on Linux and other platforms] are still pretty similar. Linux customers are saying, 'We just want light-weight Linux monitoring and reporting at a light-weight price.'"
But despite the overtly commercial motivation, Ovum's Barnett says that CA's contribution to open source is significant when compared with other large contributors such as IBM and Sun.
"They've contributed more than a lot of technology companies," says Barnett. "No software vendor has made a greater contribution to open source than IBM, but given CA's size relative to IBM, their contribution is relevant. Sun is ahead of IBM but its relationship to open source is ambivalent."
IBM has contributed to various projects including Apache and software development platform Eclipse. It has approximately 500 employees working on Linux development at IBM's Linux Technology Centre, according to Adam Jollans, the worldwide Linux strategy manager at IBM. It has also made one-off donations of source code, including the Cloudscape database and voice recognition software.
Sun is involved in various open source projects including Linux desktop GNOME, Java servlet engine Tomcat and open source productivity application OpenOffice.org, which was created when it released the source code of StarOffice in 2000. It released the first piece of Solaris source code on Tuesday and is planning to release the remaining code over the next few months.
But, Sun has been accused of trying to undermine Linux and has been criticised for not releasing the source code of Java.
Applications on Linux
CA’s Gupta claims his company started offering the majority of its applications on Linux at least three years ago, before many ISVs presented this option. "Our major products have been on Linux for three or four years," he says
Ovum's Barnett says that this is a positive move as one issue that could hold back Linux is the availability of applications. "Right now they [CA] wouldn't lose a lot of business by not having applications on Linux," he explains. "Them doing this is helping Linux."
But Red Monk's Governor says CA has no choice about moving to Linux, as many companies are enforcing the use of Linux to cut costs. IBM is in a similar situation to CA and their role in promoting the take-up of Linux has been exaggerated, he claims.
"System management companies [such as IBM and CA] don't have a choice -- many customers are mandating Linux as an environment," says Governor. "People talk about IBM pushing Linux, IBM has been dragged to Linux. If you don't make your applications available on Linux you can't sell into some of the biggest companies in the world."
Future plans at CA
Gupta says CA is unlikely to open source another technology in the near future. "At this point I don't see another CA technology that will imminently be put into open source," he explains.
Ovum's Barnett believes it is unlikely that CA will ever release the source code of its most popular software, such as its Unicenter management software. "I don't see them open sourcing chunks of their crown-jewel applications like Unicenter," he says
Red Monk's Governor believes CA is unlikely to get more support from the open source community unless it contributes to one of its newer technologies.
"If they committed something new, rather than something legacy [Ingres] to the open source community -- that's when they'll get support," says Governor.
The attitude of the majority of the former proprietary-only software vendors to open source appears to be one of 'If you can't beat them, join them.' CA has certainly done more than most to join the open source movement but only time will tell if the belief goes deep enough to guarantee the company's long-term surivival as enterprises increasingly see community developed software as a trustworthy alternative.
