IBM Closes the door

IBM has now started to restrict access to Fix-Central (downloads) and now requires a valid maintenance-contract to be linked to your IBM ID. Whilst I understand that IBM is looking to protect there IP this could not have come at a worse time. With falling AIX sales and countless customers looking to break-out of what they see as unnecessarily expense vendor lock-ins and proprietry technology I think IBM should be looking to do the following:

1. Provide low-cost (may free) developmental AIX licences for partners and solution providers
2. Build flexible cloud offerings where developers could have access to lab systems on a pay per use basis
3. Simplify the leasing of new and used equipment
4. Increase the Linux affinity of AIX to encourage more AIX/Linux hybrid systems so that customers that wish to migrate to Linux could stay on the same hardware.

When you look at the speed at which the iSeries market appears to have dried-up, I think they need to act very quickly and decisively.