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IBM Not To Use Vista - But Will Move to Linux Desktops

neoseeker.com — Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has canceled 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.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 8, 2006

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  • reiggin, on 10/12/2007, -6/+59IBM is not an OEM. They are a company that, according to this article, will not be licensing Vista for their employees' desktops. You are probably thinking of the *old* IBM that manufactured PC's. That division was sold to Lenovo, a Chinese company.
  • lego, on 10/12/2007, -5/+47They're not going to be selling IBM computers with Linux on them. The article is about in-house computers.
  • hutchy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+39i love how digg users forget that ibm dropped out of the pc market quite a while back when they sold their pc division to lenovo. This looks like it's just going to be on their employees machines, so you won't be able to buy one anyway.
  • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+39"Vista (planned for 2006) has been a total rework. Their last from scratch product was Windows 1, which wasn't even their ideas in the first place."

    No, it really hasn't. They want you to BELIEVE it's a total rework. They say it as much as possible. But truth be told, it's simply Windows NT6. And I'm sure the Microsoft kids on this site will mod this down, but even you guys know it's true (hell, look at any DLL's version, look at the placement of files, look at the code.. ahh forget it nobody's listening).
  • coredump0x01, on 10/12/2007, -25/+55OEM support is exactly what desktop linux needs to fly. Thanks to IBM for realizing that.
  • FearNLoathing, on 10/12/2007, -10/+34Misleading topic/post, apparently this might only be IBM Germany
  • Linuxrocks, on 10/12/2007, -12/+34IBM has been a big Linux supporter for a while. I think Open Source is a much larger competitor for Microsoft than Apple.
  • aemaeth7, on 10/12/2007, -6/+22This is IN HOUSE.

    Not dealing with IBM computers, installing options of Linux or Windows (etc like you might hear with Dell).

    This deals with the OS that the employees use at (possibly Germany) IBM in the future in October. Not consumers. :)
  • Herolint, on 10/12/2007, -11/+25I absolutely refuse to use Vista. I don't want all the DRM crap and I don't want to have to buy a new computer just to read my damn email.
  • Oakes, on 10/12/2007, -10/+23LOL, funniest digg story ever. Did anyone here read the article before proclaiming the Year of Desktop Linux and the Fall of Microsoft?

    Hilarious.
  • babbling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13A lot of Windows users probably do get unauthorized copies of Windows. All of that stops with Vista, though.

    Microsoft has started a subscription-based (US $50/year) virus/spyware scanner service called Windows OneCare, meaning that they now have a conflict of interest. Should they fix those Windows security flaws, or leave them a bit longer so that they can protect their users from some spyware? In starting this new subscription-based virus/spyware scanner, Microsoft obviously expect viruses and spyware to still be a big problem on Vista. This means they are not taking security as seriously as they claim to be, and indeed, they expect that users will REQUIRE their additional OneCare service to keep their data safe.

    Apart from this, Trusted Computing will also prevent people from making unauthorized copies of Vista, and getting software updates for unauthorized copies will be harder than ever. I'm sure Vista will get cracked, but the cracked version won't be able to fetch updates, but will surely require them.

    The "copy Windows" alternative is gone, now. You can pay for each and every Vista licence (along with, optionally, a $50/year subscription to Windows OneCare), or you can download an operating system like Ubuntu and see if that suits your needs.
  • Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17He asked a simple question. Why are we modding it down?

    As for me, I haven't decided yet. On the one hand, I really don't want to fork over who knows how much money to upgrade from XP. On the other hand, sooner or later games will require Vista, and it might be more affordable to just suck up and pay the one time cost than to shell out month after month, year after year to run the games on Cedega. And as frustrated as I have been with XP, they keep saying Vista's been built more or less from scratch, so it might very well be more stable and secure. I know it's borderline scandalous to suggest that Microsoft might do something right on Digg, but if Vista turns out to actually work the way it's supposed to, and it runs all of my software without me having to ghetto-rig a WINE solution and pray that it works, it might be worth it. I'll just have to wait and see.
  • leonbev, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16This bears repeating... IBM doesn't make desktops and laptops anymore. Lenovo does. When you think Thinkpad, think Lenovo.

    Also, I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that either Red Hat's or IBM's desktop offerings are good enough to replace Windows XP in a corporate setting.... yet. Hell, you can't even get a native Lotus Notes client for Linux yet, and everyone at IBM uses Notes for their e-mail. It might be ready for a full migration in 2008 or 2009, but not 2007.
  • dongiaconia, on 10/12/2007, -22/+33w00t.
    Just wondering, how many digg users will be saying the same thing? (linux instead of vista)
  • alexandreracine, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16"I absolutely refuse to use Vista. I don't want all the DRM crap and I don't want to have to buy a new computer just to read my damn email."

    Where do you see "monitor" in there? He is refering to the fact that Vista is currently using a lot of CPU and MEM.
  • drbroccoli, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16Microsoft will either fall, or will start making good product.
  • craterburnsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11"though it will hurt their profits (hopefully RedHat cuts them a deal to help)"

    How do you figure it hurts their profits? I think you've misunderstood this completely. Microsoft Charges IBM, Probably Alot, of money.. If RedHat Charges, it will be a flat rate for Tech Support and nothing else, which doesn't nessisarily mean they even bought that, if they have a good amount of tech's with Linux System Admin. Knowledge, they could download RedHat and use it, There is no qualm about doing that.. they don't charge for the Os, just the support... and big manual it comes with.
  • Lounger540, on 10/12/2007, -10/+19Well regardless that they don't sell PC's anymore, it's thousands of employees will use it at work. They're likely to start installing it at home and kids machines and so on.
  • alexandreracine, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I think that your affirmation "Vista (planned for 2006) has been a total rework." is a little strong.

    The WMF vulnerability was affecting 95, 98, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. Total rework? I don't think so.

    Microsoft fixes WMF vulnerability in Vista OS builds.
    http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2006/01/17/microsoft-fixes-wmf-vulnerability-in-vista-os-builds/
  • GreatToast, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Hate to tell you but Open Office handles MS files just fine.
  • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Dugg, but the article states that they're not sure whether this will be only in Germany, or the entire company.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+15People actually pay for windows? I though most people "borrowed" a free copy.
  • FRAGaLOT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Wait a sec. IBM said they have made the move to Linux YEARS ago. How it is a surprise they won't be bothering with yet another windows OS, when they dumped Microsoft around the time Windows 2000 came out?
  • muikano, on 10/12/2007, -8/+15It doesnt even matter if it's just IBM Germany. IF Linux works in IBM germany, and if it increases productivity in that division---Can you say Snowball effect?

    The question is: Is Linux really for the bigtime? I mean, is it good enough? I'm not going to bash Linux but not all the GNU ***** are together yet. Then again, what the hell do offices use besides Office/Excel/Access progs anyways.
  • eklitzke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Have you even used Linux recently? It's not at all difficult to use -- especially when the sysadmin deals with all of the technical stuff.
  • Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Power is certainly in balance, and competition is a great thing, but I think it's perhaps a bit premature to be anticipating Microsoft's fall.
  • waiwai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Unlikely in the US. Back when I was at IBM they were actually switching us away from using their own Lotus 1-2-3 to using Excel because that's what finance was using..
  • Oakes, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14Asking for IBM to be loyal to Gates is kind of ironic, seeing as how Gates wasn't so loyal to...nevermind.
  • pt4117, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11Nearly every comment has a negative rating because it looks like most people did not read the article, and totally jumped to the wrong conclusion.

    It looks like everyone thought that all thinkpads, and 'IBM' desktops would be shipping with Linux. If a comment made a poor assumption it should get modded down.

    I'm all for Linux, but we can't let bad information spread.
  • chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -10/+16Nearly every comment here has a negative rating, looks like linux is a risky topic.

    Mod this down.
  • drlog, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12Apple and OSS is not one and the same! Use linux for a while then switch to a mac. You will see that the platform is more closed. That is: less OPEN...whatever, I dont really care that much since I have what I want.
  • SilentBobSC, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11Lounger - I believe this relates only to the employees of IBM and not their OEM OS choice.
  • gamerzworld, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Who read the story before commenting/digging?
  • helzerman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You can run Notes 6 (haven't tried 7) nicely on RedHat today, although you are using WINE. Works great for me on a T41 though. My experience runing Notes under Linux on SuSE was less than desirable.
  • ItsGus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'd love for you to explain yourself, or back yourself up with at least one fact, instead of an empty claim.

    This article has nothing to do with IBM's success in this year.. please, go on..
  • Harlequn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Business users will love this.

    1) not a whole lotta games on Linux so nobody playin' "Doom" on company time
    2) not a whole lotta viruses on Linux, so not as many security worries for coporate customers.
    3) the I.T. department can have more control over what people install
  • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I'm surprised I haven't seen much to do about what this may be really about.
    Negotiation... Negotiation... Negotiation...

    As many have said here "IBM" desktops and notebooks are now gone, finished, history. They don't make 'em anymore. That alone makes this a non-issue. Other companies have moved more users, most companies don't blow the trumpets when they move to Linux, its just a move to a different OS not a religion.

    Hypothesis: IBM is not buying Vista because they weren't happy with their enterprise agreement. We probably won't read but a blip when they sign their newly discounted Software Assurance agreement.

    No Digg on this one, if Dell said they were not re-signing their Microsoft agreement then it would be a big deal.



  • CaughtThinking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3linux needs games. microsoft has the geeks who play games. if you could play all the games you have on windows and more on linux, i think most people would switch in an instant.
  • steal_apps01, on 10/12/2007, -9/+12Ah it's OS/2 all over again. Even if it's only internally I would like to see this.
  • ItsGus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3IBM made thinkpads until they sold those to lenovo. They're some of the best hardware for a laptop running windows
  • dink, on 10/12/2007, -21/+24In soviet russia, linux runs YOU?
    On a more serious note. This is good that linux is seeing this sort of exposure, but unless redhat has changed ALOT , not to flame, but is this really the right distro for the job?
  • silverstrike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Unfortunately, you can't ask "is this the right distro for the job". For a business customer, Gentoo, for example, might meet more of their needs, however the support they will get will be much less comprehensive, and therefore they have to go with Red Hat.
  • crouton, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7As a US IBM'er I can tell you we have been able to use RH as our desktop OS for a long time. Ofcourse some things require Windows ( our windows apps for example for build and test....lets not get into an offtopic WINE discussion here) but this is no big surprise that some rollout in the not too distant future will be linux when you get a new desktop machine for email/IM/web etc.
  • sorti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I remember running Microsoft Mail 2.x connectors on OS/2 and windows and the OS/2 boxes never had problems. I remember finding countless voice mail systems running OS/2 still working after years and years where windows boxes would never stay up. I remember Microsoft bailing on IBM to dedicate them selves to Windows and leaving OS/2 out in the cold. The failure of OS/2 was one of the first times Microsoft showed it true colors as a company you can't trust.

    What were you doing with OS/2 that failed so badly? What I can remember of OS/2 was my big problem was it was from IBM and at that time they were much too large for my liking.
  • mianos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It's interesting, coming from Germany they have not chosen Suse. Even in Canada the IBM sales guys push Suse as a supported primary install. Good news all the same. Of course, like Telstra Australia, it might just be a strategy to lower MS license costs.
  • cmiller1, on 10/12/2007, -13/+16Oh my god, I'm a hardcore mac fan, but this was just stupid that people dugg this down because it said that open source is a bigger competitor to microsoft than apple. It's a very valid point, I mean, in a large part it is open source software that is fueling Apple right now! I say they're one and the same!
  • celeb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah, I hear ya but as far as a corporate environment goes, you really don't want to have to support wine as well.. Or assume an end user has the know-how.

    On a side note, domino 5/6/7 webmail (not inotes) supports firefox
  • GruntboyX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3My father works for IBM currently and he does consulting work. His computing needs are more dictated by the product he is supporting and the customers network. IBM does supply his computing needs, but his compatibility with the customer is paramount. He has to adapt to his customers computing philosophy and networks. Not the other way around. I doubt seriously windows will ever be completely erradicated from his life. Although this is an interesting turn of events. Should be fun to see how it pans out. More choices is always better
  • darrylring, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It's been the year of the Linux desktop for the past four or five years I think, has it not?
  • ItsGus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why are we (actual IBM employees with valid and credible information) getting thumbs down in several of the comments above? what is with you people?
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