“Enterprises are likely to find Linux useful for bigger, more
mission-critical applications next year due in part to a $1 billion
infusion given the technology by IBM.”
“The company plans to devote that amount to Linux development,
marketing and consulting next year, up from the “several hundreds
of millions of dollars” this year, said Steve Solazzo, vice
president of Linux for IBM….”
“The investment will be aimed at several areas. The company will
port Linux to all its server lines, including Intel-architecture
servers, RISC servers, the AS/400 and mainframes. It will rewrite
its applications to run on Linux and double the size of the
100-person team that writes open-source code and determines what
IBM software and technology should be released to the open source
community. It will increase investment in assisting independent
software vendors to support Linux, add Linux-dedicated sales staff
and service support through IBM Global Services.”