Is Jazz the real deal for IBM?

That's one way to think of Jazz, the new Eclipse-orented development community IBM opened today.

If you like IBM this is great news. If you distrust IBM, then maybe not so much.

Sure you could get a Toyota at the new CarMax, but don't you think the guys (and gals) in the blue shirts might now feel more inclined to point you toward a Chevy or a nice GMC truck?

This seems pretty clear looking at IBM's press release on Jazz, which is filled with references to IBM's Rational Software unit.

This is partly meant to help Jazz go beyond sites like Sourceforge, by actually enabling real-time collaboration. IBM says it is offering this collaboration capability free to some open source projects and academic institutions.

I know the analogies are getting tiresome at this point. Cars aren't software, even though software is inside cars. Programmers aren't buying packages, they're looking to use tools in order to build systems, or improve them.

There's also nothing intrinsically wrong with what IBM is doing here. This whole deal is a real net benefit to the open source community, especially the increasing number of enterprise programmers using the Eclipse tool set.

But IBM isn't placing this site inside Eclipse. The blue-shirted workers who will be helping you here are likely to have an affinity for IBM tools and software. It's more like a kinder, gentler, Microsoft DevNet, with an open source twist.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just so long as you're aware. To use the site's own analogy that's not Billy Joel at the piano, it's Sam Palmisano. Or someone like him.

If he is in a New York state of mind, we're talking Armonk, New York.