IBM and Business Partners Roll Out a Linux-Based, Virtual Desktop

Virtual Bridges and Canonical is offering general availability of a Linux-desktop solution designed to drive significant savings compared with Microsoft-desktop software by amplifying Lotus collaboration software and Ubuntu to a larger user base through virtualization. This solution runs open standards-based email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, social networking and other software to any laptop, browser, or mobile device from a virtual desktop login on a Linux-based server configuration.

A virtual desktop looks like a traditional desktop but is not limited to a single physical computer. Instead, many virtual Linux desktops are hosted on a server. The combined solution includes: virtual desktop provided by Virtual Bridges called Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment (VERDE); Ubuntu, a Linux desktop operating system, from Canonical; and IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution software (OCCS) based on IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus applications. IBM Lotus Symphony is built on the Open Document Format (ODF).

The news builds on announcements throughout 2008 around delivering Microsoft-alternative desktops in conjunction with our partners. This solution is now a key component of IBM's financial services front office transformation offering as well as part of the IBM public sector industry solution framework. "When we look back several years from now, I think we'll see this time as an inflection point when the economic climate pushed the virtual Linux desktop from theory to practice," said Inna Kuznetsova, director, IBM Linux Strategy, in a press release. "The financial pressures on organizations are staggering and the management of PCs is unwieldy. Today's virtual desktop is delivering superior collaborative software, an innovative delivery method, and an open-source operating system that is demanding clients' consideration," he said.