Line56: Linux for Lotus

“Linux has a big fan in IBM, and the upcoming LinuxWorld event
in San Francisco will see a number of announcements from the
e-business giant highlighting the open source operating system. In
fact, the announcements have begun already, with IBM revealing that
its popular Lotus software now supports Linux.

“Lotus and Linux constitute one front in a war against
Microsoft, explains Evans Data analyst Joe McKendrick. ‘This is a
point where Linux is making inroads against Microsoft Outlook and
Exchange,’ he says.

“Simply put, Lotus–IBM’s instant messaging (IM), e-mail, and
groupware suite–goes up against Microsoft’s products, and IBM
ultimately prefers that they do so in Linux rather than
Windows.

“‘The main reason for IBM to support Linux is the horse race
with Microsoft,’ is how McKendrick puts it…”

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