IBM, Microsoft, Sun officials offer their perspectives The open source Business Conference last week featured some curious commentary, including Microsoft citing the commercialization of open source and multiple-patent-holder IBM bashing U.S. patent laws.Noting that Microsoft is often cited as trying to lock customers into its technologies, Jason Matusow, director of Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative, said users are just as much on a certain technology path if they choose Red Hat, which has its roots in open source software.Traditional and open source providers must all be concerned with issues such as backward compatibility and product road maps, Matusow said. “I reject the idea that the open source business vendors don’t want to make the second sale,” he said. Customers, meanwhile, want value for their money regardless of the provider’s business model, according to Matusow.Open source is fundamentally a product competition, Matusow said. Red Hat and Suse Linux compete, for example. But he applauded the increased community involvement afforded by open source.The Shared Source Initiative allows customers in some instances to look at Microsoft source code, Matusow said. Microsoft is pondering adding technologies in areas such as development tools to the Shared Source program, Matusow said.An IBM official, meanwhile, criticized patent laws. Describing U.S. patent policy as “lousy,” IBM Vice President of Technology and Strategy Irving Wladawsky-Berger said that the U.S. Patent Office has been simply too lax in granting patents. “Any idiot can get a patent for something that should never be granted a patent,” he said.Frivolous patent lawsuits could ultimately prove to be such an impediment to business that they could drive companies out of the United States, Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview after his keynote address. In touting Sun’s OpenSolaris endeavor, Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz stressed that there is plenty of room in the marketplace for both an open source Solaris and Linux.“As far as I’m concerned, the open sourcing of Solaris just increases the diversity of the community,” Schwartz said.Sun’s strategy is to increase the number and quality of participants in open source, Schwartz added. “It’s a rising tide,” Schwartz said. Robert McMillian, IDG News Service, contributed to this report. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business