IBM will use Linux, not Vista!
Looks like IBM is switching to Linux destops in Germany. During a presentation on IBM’s involvement with Open Source, Andreas Pleschek – head of open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe for IBM, made a very interesting statement:
“Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once – some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista.”
Neoseeker.com writes that question remains; does this only apply to IBM Germany, or IBM world wide?
Yup, it’s world-wide … although some countries will take a different approach.
IBM generally does its software licensing at a global level – and IBM was amongst Microsoft’s biggest customers – until they cancelled the enterprise agreement.
I’ll be writing up a bit more about this on IBM Eye when I get a chance.
I wrote a rather lengthy discussion on this topic over on my IBM Eye blog: No Vista for IBM ?
Great post Sim! Thanks for the update!