NEWS BRIEFS
San Francisco, CA – Closely held Turbolinux will start selling International Business Machines Corp. (IBM.N) software that runs on Linux, the latest move by Big Blue to spur acceptance of the upstart operating system. Under an agreement between the two companies, which are expected to announce the deal later on Wednesday, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM and Turbolinux will jointly market, distribute and support IBM’s DB2 database, WebSphere, Lotus Domino, Tivoli Framework and IBM’s small business suits for Linux software programs.
The programs are used by medium- and large-sized companies to help automate and run their operations. Competitors in these areas include Microsoft Corp.(MSFT.O) and Oracle Corp.(ORCL.O), among others.
The announcement follows IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner’s reiteration in December of the company’s plans to spend $1 billion during the next year on developing Linux-based software.
Already, many large companies are embracing Linux. Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS)(SHEL.L) is currently building the world’s biggest Linux supercomputer using IBM computer servers to aid in the search for oil.
The announcement also comes after IBM announced in 1999 the first offering of its DB2 database software that ran on the Linux operating system. Subsequent to that, IBM took an undisclosed equity stake in Turbolinux.
The products will be available in the first half of 2001, with pricing not yet determined.
============================================================