Desktops minus Microsoft
2008-06-03 12:00
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Jessica Hodgson
San Francisco - International Business Machines Corp, Novell Inc and distributor Avnet Inc, seeking to capitalise on resistance to Microsoft Corp's dominance of the desktop software market, on Tuesday launched a software bundle for UK desktop users designed to allow customers to skip Microsoft products.
The so-called IBM Open Collaboration Solution uses open document format, or ODF-based software, running on Suse Linux, a version of the Linux open-source operating system software owned by Novell.
IBM claims the software bundle, which will be distributed by Avnet and sold by three integration and consultancy partners, will be the first enterprise-scale software package designed to allow business customers to skip Microsoft products altogether.
The initiative arrives amid growing interest among mainstream computer hardware and software manufacturers in providing computing solutions that don't require Microsoft software. There has also been discontent over the software giant's large market share, and complaints about the performance of its most recent operating system, Vista.
Last month, computer maker Dell Inc, a long-term partner of Microsoft, launched PCs that embed the Linux operating system.
The sales pitch is designed to emphasise that customers can make cost savings by running computers without Microsoft software, and also to tap into fears that Microsoft's monopoly of the desktop computing and office tools market gives it control over IT spending, IBM said.
"An awful lot of the spending dollars available to customers is currently going to desktop software," Doug Heintzman, director of strategy for IBM collaboration, said. IBM says it isn't charging for the software it provides, though Novell makes money from licensing.
Heintzman said IBM estimates that a customer can save between $600 and $800 per computer compared with using the Microsoft Vista operating system and Office productivity tools, such as word processing and spreadsheet applications on similar hardware.
IBM, Novell and Avnet are working with consultancy and systems integration partners Erebor, Conexus and BasicTM, to sell the systems in the UK.
Heintzman said similar solutions had already been launched in Eastern Europe and added that IBM would consider launching a non-Microsoft software bundle in the US and elsewhere.
IBM estimates that the desktop Linux market is currently worth around four billion dollars. Microsoft's Windows has a market share of over 90% of the desktop computer operating system market.
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