NewsForge: IBM and Linux: What’s Really Happening

“In February 1999, IBM announced it would support Linux and a
partnership with Red Hat. By July of that year, Advanced
Communication Design, a developer and OEM of in-store interactive
digital audio and video merchandising systems, made history by
being one of the first companies to deploy a major, mission
critical IBM/Red Hat Linux system. Why? Marco Scibora, ACD’s
president explained then it was because “Linux is very reliable,
and its help resources are extremely fast,” and also, “now that
Linux has major corporate help support from IBM and other
companies, it makes a great environment for customized
programs.”

“Fast-forward to October 2000: IBM announced it had a grand
operating system unification plan for its servers. Its name was
Linux, and with the partnership of the four major business Linux
distributors, Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and Turbolinux, IBM made it
happen. Today, there’s no modern IBM hardware from laptop to
mainframe that you can’t run Linux on.

“Now it all seems inevitable. IBM and Linux, Linux and IBM.
Today, the two go together as closely as Microsoft and Windows. But
what is IBM really getting from Linux? How well is the partnership
between what was once seen as the stodgiest of all computer
companies and the most rebellious of all operating systems actually
going beyond the ad campaigns and the constant announcements of new
deals…?”

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