A FRENCH OUTFIT is complaining that IBM has been blocking its customers from using its open source technology.

Turbohercules says that Big Blue is preventing customers from using its open source mainframe emulator by tying IBM’s mainframe operating system to IBM hardware. This prevents Turbohercules from providing mainframe customers a different open source option.

IBM has accused the company of violating its intellectual property rights.

Roger Bowler, co-founder of Turbohercules, says that although IBM says it embraces the use of Linux, the reality was that over 90 per cent of mainframe applications still use native mainframe operating systems such as z/OS and languages such as COBOL, PL/I or Assembler.

He says, “The Hercules open source project team created the Hercules emulator in order to give the owners of this hugely valuable installed base of mainframe applications freedom of choice in the hardware systems used with this software.”

Bowler believes that IBM’s ownership of 100 per cent of the IBM-compatible mainframe market is of serious concern.

He adds, “This monopoly position is without precedent in the history of the mainframe - indeed for decades mainframe customers benefitted from the competition resulting from manufacturers of mainframe hardware compatible with the IBM architecture. 

“But no more. Today, thanks to its use of lawsuits, preemptive takeovers and threats against would-be competitors, IBM is the only vendor in the world allowed to sell hardware systems compatible with applications that run on its vast suite of mainframe software (e.g., z/OS, z/VM, CICS, IMS, DB2).”

So what will IBM do? Maintain its mainframe cash cow, or keep its open source credibility? µ