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IBM gets back into PCs
Wednesday, March 05 2008
by The Register


IBM is getting back into the PC game -- or at least it is in
Eastern Europe.



The company sold its PC business and brands to Chinese
hardware maker Lenovo in 2005 and this time round is
partnering with an Austrian company to make the actual boxes
and with a Polish firm to distribute them.



The Microsoft-free boxes will be made by Austrian firm VDEL,
and Warsaw-based LX Polska will act as distributor. The
computers will be called "Open Referent" and are based on
IBM's Lotus Open Collaboration Client Solution marketing
initiative with Red Hat.



The machines will run on Red Hat's Enterprise Linux Desktop
but will also include IBM's Lotus Notes and Symphony software
as well as VDEL's own document management software.



Russia and Eastern Europe are seen as key battlegrounds for
Linux because greater pressure on costs makes open source
software more attractive to local businesses.



Aside from cost, Linux's reputation for security is also
important.



Oleg Churko, director of Research Institute for Information
Security, Minsk, Belarus, said in a statement: "OpenReferent
is a highly competitive alternative to Microsoft offerings
for large organisations... Taking into account the unmatched
security offered by the Linux platform, it will set a new
standard for document management."



The three companies will also work together to get their
machines government-certified for information security. The
PCs should be available within the month.



The Register
and its contents are copyright 2008 Situation Publishing.
Reprinted with permission.