IBM and the Linux Desktop

[mrBen]

I found the fact that big companies are getting involved in Linux quite exciting. And to see that you can now by an IBM Thinkpad with Linux preinstalled is fantastic. But I have a niggling question:

One of the great things about Linux (and there are many) is it's ability to run on legacy hardware. The ability to be able to go to a company and tell them that they can upgrade to the latest operating system of its type for next to nothing _and_ they won't have to upgrade their hardware is just amazing.

While I understand that IBM and HP/Compaq are keen to sell some extremely :cool: Linux servers, what benefit is there to them to sell Linux desktops, given that as hardware manufacturers they will want their customers to upgrade their hardware at regular intervals, and Linux just doesn't need that like Windoze does.

Now, before you answer, I do realise that both these big companies are selling solutions, and that the Total Cost of Ownership is probably still slanted in favour of the vendor, but it does beg the question:

Will IBM / HP/Compaq ever back Linux as a Desktop solution, given that the Windows software/hardware upgrade cycle favours them?

[drmbb]

Well, going by what I've gotton out of meetings and seminars with some of the IBM high-performance computing folks (and some of the SGI folks) is this:

In the long term, these companies are basically looking to get out of the proprietory UNIX OS business. AIX, IRIX and their ilk cost these companies a lot to support and develop, yet contribute little to their overall corporate income. If Linux could be developed to completely replacing the functionality of AIX, IBM might get out of the OS business altogether (so they hint anyway). Right now, they have to continue AIX and other high end OS's as they cannot be replaced by Linux on their high-performance machines (eg. SP2s), but in the future (whatever that means, 2years, 5, 10?) if this becomes unnecessary, then they want to have an established expertise with Linux.

I'm sure there are other reasons- eg. competing in the rapidly growing business market for low-cost cluster technologies and such.