Linux rescues IBM from Windows Vista hell
By Matt Jansen
Though Lotus Notes was originally designed for OS/2, IBM responded to customer demands and ported its software over to Microsoft’s platform and still supports Windows XP and Vista. But now IBM is breaking its chains to Microsoft by embracing Linux and the open source community.
IBM just announced that it “. . . will offer an integrated Open Collaboration Client Solution with support for Ubuntu, a Linux-based operating system from Canonical Ltd.”
What’s included in the Open Collaboration Client Solution? It’s “. . . personal computing software that is based on open standards, providing businesses with a cost-effective and security-rich alternative to Microsoft desktops.” See the end of the article for a complete list of software included.
By taking advantage of Linux’s growing popularity, IBM may be able to gain a lead in the developing open source software market. It also gives big blue the ability to influence the direction of Linux through its partnerships with other strong open source players like Red Hat and Novell.
Inna Kuznetsova, cross-IBM executive for Linux hopes that by supporting Linux, the company “will help to accelerate the adoption of IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution, and further address customer demands around choice.” He further explains that “by providing an alternative to the proprietary desktop model through one based on open standards, businesses now have the freedom to select the proper mix of software to help improve collaboration, increase end-user productivity, and reduce total cost of ownership.”
IBM also announced initiatives with Red Hat and Novell to market its Lotus products on their Linux platforms.
This latest move toward open source by IBM may come at an ideal time as Windows Vista suffers from a poor reputation among businesses and consumers. It’s a clean way for the company to re-brand itself and break out of Microsoft’s platform.
The Open Collaboration Client Solution includes:
- IBM Lotus Notes: Email and collaboration software for which more than 140 million seat licenses have been sold worldwide.
- IBM Lotus Sametime: A unified communication and collaboration platform featuring an industry leading business instant messaging solution. Integrated Lotus Sametime with instant messaging and chat comes with Lotus Notes is part of the core solution. Customers have the option to buy additional Lotus Sametime capabilities.
- IBM Lotus Symphony (beta): A set of productivity tools for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
- IBM WebSphere Portal: A server-based foundation for building portal applications and services, with optional accelerators, accessed through a common entry point via popular browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
- IBM Lotus Connections: Industry’s first social software for business.
- IBM Lotus Quickr: Team-based collaboration and document management software.
- IBM Lotus Expeditor: IBM’s Eclipsed-based Rich Client Platform (RCP) for developing and deploying applications.
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January 24th, 2008
But are any of these applications released under the GPL? No. Are any of them open source or Free Software in any way? No. Is this just an attempt to gain favour from the open source and Free Software communities with use of words IBM thinks they will like? Yes.