IBM To Microsoft: It’s Go Time
From an IBM press release:
For the first time, IBM and leading Linux distributors Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat will join forces globally with their hardware partners to deliver Microsoft-free personal computing choices with Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony in the one billion-unit desktop market worldwide by 2009.
Citing shifting market forces and the growing demand for economical alternatives to costly Windows and Office-based computers, the four leaders sense an ideal set of circumstances allowing Linux-based desktops to proliferate in the coming year. Linux is far more profitable for a PC vendor and the operating system is better equipped to work with lower cost hardware than new Microsoft technology.
“The slow adoption of Vista among businesses and budget-conscious CIOs, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president for IBM Lotus Software. “We’ll work to unlock the desktop to save our customers money and give freedom of choice by offering this industry-leading solution.”
The four organizations are working with vendors to build and distribute a PC pre-loaded with Linux and IBM enterprise collaboration software. This move is aimed squarely at corporate and government desktops, a market notoriously resistant to Linux computers outside of server racks. If IBM really wants to tackle the desktop, I think a better strategy may be taking the Apple route and building a new OS based on some other less-popular flavor of Unix, with the difference that it would not be tied to proprietary hardware. Now that would be cool.
