AS PART OF its crusade to marginalize operating systems such as Windows, IBM is leaning toward giving the Standard Edition of its WebSphere application server to the open-source community.

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As an extension to the Apache Web server technology, IBM hopes WebSphere will be one of the final pieces it needs to make sure all OS-level middleware services are available as open-source technologies.

"Once we get the WebSphere run-time engine embedded in a wide variety of applications, this is the next logical step," said Valerie Olague, Somers, N.Y.-based director of product marketing for business transformation at IBM.

For IBM, the key issue driving this move is to prevent Microsoft, Sun, or any other vendor from using a core technology to dominate the industry. This point was reinforced in the most recent edition of the IBM annual report, in which company CEO and Chairman Lou Gerstner said that eliminating technology choke points is a key goal for the company.

IBM officials contend that their approach to enabling technologies is in sharp contrast to those of Microsoft and Sun, both of whom are leveraging their respective investments in Windows and Java to limit choice.

"I think [IBM's] move is acknowledging [the] reality ... that more and more people are not building [applications] to specific operating system environments. Whenever possible, they are building to a higher level than the OS," said Dan Kusnetzky, senior analyst at IDC, in Framingham, Mass.

In general, IBM officials said that efforts such as Microsoft.NET and Sun's iPlanet are little more than attempts to extend open technologies using proprietary technology.

"The problem is that even if what they offer is 90 percent healthy and only 10 percent rat poison, the rat poison is still going to kill you," said Scott Hebner, director of e-business marketing at the IBM Software Group.

Hebner said that should Microsoft gain the acceptance of a major industry-standards body such as the European Computer Manufacturers' Association for its forthcoming C# initiative, IBM would likely place support for C# on a par with Java given Sun's reluctance to make Java a truly open standard.

If IBM gives WebSphere to the open-source community, it will have a profound impact on the 40 or so vendors offering rival application servers, in that these products will become commodity level.

"If all you're doing is spitting out EJBs [Enterprise JavaBeans], it doesn't matter what the app looks like," said Tracy Corbo, senior analyst at consultancy Hurwitz Group, in Framingham, Mass. "We might see consolidation because we don't need 40 application servers."

As a result, Corbo continued, application server vendors such as Bluestone and BEA will have to address IBM's open-sourcing WebSphere to compete, although Corbo doubts such companies will release their application servers to the open-source community.