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What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

strongloop.com

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Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#71

Post by _delirium »

mbesto wrote: post #17

> And it’s not just Node.js. Maybe you haven’t looked at what IBM is doing with open source lately. I was surprised when I dug in. For example, did you know they are leading contributors to: Linux OpenStack Cloud Foundry Docker plus many Apache projects like Spark, Cordova and Hadoop and of course, Node They are? (keyword => "leading") https://github.com/docker/docker/graphs/contributors https://github.com/apache/spa…

It looks like IBM's Spark-related work is planned to be here initially: https://github.com/SparkTC

There's an article here: http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/15/ibm-pours-researchers-and-r...

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#72

Post by athenot »

This announcement fits along with Node.js 4.0's release containing a commitment to an 18-month roadmap in giving Node.js a greater maturity.

As much as I like to think I have chosen Node.js purely for its merits, having a wide community who adopts a platform brings a few perks:

- Hiring developers requires less of a gamble on their part. Elixir looks very promising and probably has a lot of advantages over Node.js thanks to it's Erlang foundation but it makes it harder to assemble a team—I hope this changes as I wish the Erlang/Elixir folks all the best.

- There is a great amount of wealth contained in the package repository NPM. Before Node.js, this was a great strength of Perl's CPAN (and TeX' CTAN before that).

- Having large organizations adopt a platform will eventually increase OSS contributions.

I could be mistaken but I don't see Node.js following the bureaucratic of Java's JSR if it continues to adopt a lean and mean approach akin to UNIX tools (do 1 thing well).

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#74

Post by codingdave »

astrodust wrote: post #26
rogerthis wrote: post #6

Once I worked in a project which IBM was also involved. And everything in IBM related to that project was slow, very slow.

It's a gigantic organization that makes hardware, software, and does consulting. Does one anecdotal story really characterize it?

It is not just one anecdotal story. I used to work for IBM, then have them as a client, then was a business partner, and have worked on their software for over 20 years.

Based on all my experience, they are slow and expensive, and over-build their teams. They do deliver the final product and it will work, which is why people hire them, but they do not do it efficiently.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#75

Post by codingdave »

It is hard to say what this means at this stage...

IBM develops products that it acquires based on where IBM needs the product to go. Sometimes that matches where the user community wants it to go, sometimes it does not. But they will put resources behind it, and it will change - we just need to give it time to see what direction that change takes things.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#76

Post by idibidiart »

iyn wrote: post #51
smnrchrds wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is starting to look like Reddit.

Nothing wrong with a little bit of humor, imo. It's not like a thread is full of puns.

make it then-able... like so:

doSomeAsync() .andThen(doSomeOtherAsync1) .andThen(doSomeOtherAsync2) ... .andThen(SomeOtherAsync10) .noAndThen(finalize)

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#77

Post by georgemcbay »

mkozlows wrote: post #43
kodablah wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current IBM dev here (but only speaking anecdotally for myself and my project), can confirm that when we were acquired they let our product and policies remain and did not "blue wash" the project. I would assume the same will occur for StrongLoop and their software practices will probably continue mostly unfettered.

Were you really left alone, though? As in, not even forced to use Lotus Notes? Because even that kind of small-bore enterprisation can destroy the culture of a small tech-focused company.

> As in, not even forced to use Lotus Notes?

painful flashback! or, I guess, "trigger" in the parlance of today.

I worked for a biotech software company some years ago that wasn't even bought by IBM but as part of becoming an "IBM Business Partner" agreed to use Lotus Notes to replace a bunch of existing stuff we were using for email/collaboration/etc.

Notes isn't even bad or anything but it was no better than the tools we were already using for the tasks we were using them for, and because it is (or was? haven't used it since) a big all-encompassing "enterprise" system it took like a half-year migration period to get everyone to the point where we could do the same sorts of things we could before, not really any better or worse, just different and incredibly disruptive during the transition.

(also, is this mkozlows from qt3? haven't posted there in a long time, used to use the handle Coca Cola Zero).

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#78

Post by aus_ »

osullivj wrote: post #11

I used to work with an old IBMer who used to say "it's no accident that IBM nearly collapsed at the same time as the Soviet Union did". Lou Gerstner famously rescued IBM from oblivion by turning it into a consultancy led company, and moving the focus away from mainframes. This is just a case of IBM snaffling up the latest cool thing so they can sell consulting services.

> ...moving the focus away from mainframes.

Actually, System z (mainframes) still accounts for a quarter of IBM's revenue and about half of its profits. [1] At least, that was the case in 2012. I suspect that hasn't changed much with IBM's recent announcement of the LinuxONE. In fact, IBM contributed significant effort get Node.js (and thereby V8) ported to s390x. [2]

[1]: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/09/ibms-mainf... [2]: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/09/ibms-mainf...

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#79

Post by greglindahl »

granos wrote: post #41
kodablah wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current IBM dev here (but only speaking anecdotally for myself and my project), can confirm that when we were acquired they let our product and policies remain and did not "blue wash" the project. I would assume the same will occur for StrongLoop and their software practices will probably continue mostly unfettered.

I hope it works out for StrongLoop. When a company I worked for was purchased by IBM, about 3/4 of the engineering staff left once we heard about "Work Life Integration (tm)". It's really hard to work inside Big Blue when you are used to the freedom provided by a small company.

Huh. When Blekko got acquired by IBM Watson, all of the employees thought that IBM's policies about flexible working hours and locations were great. So far I'm the only techie who's departed.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#80

Post by colordrops »

eikenberry wrote: post #68
granos wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope it works out for StrongLoop. When a company I worked for was purchased by IBM, about 3/4 of the engineering staff left once we heard about "Work Life Integration (tm)". It's really hard to work inside Big Blue when you are used to the freedom provided by a small company.

Care to elaborate on IBM "Work Life Integration (tm)" and why it caused the mass exodus?

A quick google search seems to indicate that IBM wanted to allow their employees more flexibility with their schedules and ability to take leaves. I don't understand how this is a bad thing.
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