IBM and friends promise "Microsoft-free" desktops for worldwide market

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 06 August 2008 13:10

Business IT - Open Source

"Open Collaboration Client Solution powered by Ubuntu that includes Lotus Notes and Symphony gives us the opportunity to deliver a complete Microsoft desktop alternative to our customers," said Malcom Yates, vice president at Canonical.


"We look forward to working with our hardware partners to expand their solution offerings."

According to IBM officials, the potential worldwide market for these systems will reach one billion units by 2009. That figure appears to be the number of PCs projected to be in use by the end of 2008 - IDC has predicted that 171.4 million desktop and x86 servers will be sold worldwide in 2009, with another 164 million portables for a total of 335.4 units.