IBM cautious over desktop plans

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 13 Nov 2003 at 16:11

Despite IBM attending the Desktop Linux Conference in Boston to talk up Linux on the desktop, its plans for offering such a product remain cautious.

The company told us: 'While interest in Linux on the desktop has been accelerating, the interest has mostly resulted in discussions with customers regarding options, with a limited number of technology assessments, and even less in actual deployments.'

At the show Sam Docknevich of IBM's Global Services group gave a speech entitled: 'The Time is Now for Linux on the Desktop'. In it he suggested that the retraining and redevelopment work resulting from Microsoft's insistence on migrating its customers to .Net versions of its products would make Linux on the desktop more attractive. Such criticisms are usually levelled at Linux.

IBM has told us that, at least for now, it is focused on enterprise needs. 'IBM's strategy related to Linux on the desktop remains unchanged,' we were told. 'To date, most of the customer interest and market traction has focused on Linux at the server level.'

Red Hat recently announced that it is to stop offering its free basic level Linux versions, to concentrate on its server-based products. And the recent acquisition of SUSE by Novell has had some in the Open Source community worried that SUSE's strong line of desktop products of late might be foiled by Novell's focus on the enterprise.

However, IBM, along with a host of other tech giants, including HP, Dell and Intel, are supporting the Open Source Development Lab's efforts to promote Linux on the desktop. And Open source advocate Bruce Perens predicted in his keynote for the conference that Linux will reach 30 per cent of business desktops by 2006.