eWeek: IBM Virtual Desktop Bundles Lotus, Ubuntu Linux to Freeze Out Microsoft

December 4 2008

A new announcement from IBM, Canonical, and Virtual Bridges today, covered by eWeek:

Appealing to cost-constrained shops worldwide, IBM claims the virtual desktop will yield a 90 percent savings of desk-side PC support and 75 percent savings on security and user administration, not to mention 50 percent on help desk services and software installations from Microsoft-based deployments.

IBM makes other eye-popping claims about how much customers will save from software license costs, hardware upgrades and reduced power to run the configuration.
Link: eWeek: IBM Virtual Desktop Bundles Lotus, Ubuntu Linux to Freeze Out Microsoft >

Ed Brill Chicago, IL USA Category:  IBM  Add/View Comments [17]

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  1. 1  John Foldager http://www.johnfoldager.com | 12/4/2008 3:34:56 PM

    This is GREAT news!

    Do you know which Ubuntu version it is based on?

    Do you know if Notes 8.5 will support openSUSE 11 and Ubuntu 8.10 (both with XGL/Compiz)?

    By the way... IBM's official press release is here: { Link }

  1. 2  Scott Marchione http://scottmarchione.blogspot.com | 12/4/2008 3:48:03 PM

    I just spent an hour on a con call with NOREX members about virturalization today, and we talked about the various options in the market for both server and desktop VM's. I wonder how IBM's offering will hold up against VMWare's VDI client.... I'm assuming that this offering is a Broker of sorts for a backend VM server... right?

  1. 3  Colin Williams  | 12/4/2008 4:34:43 PM

    Very nice. For us peeps running Ubuntu (8.10) at home, anyone got any pointers on how/where I get Notes and Symphony on there?

  1. 4  Jack Dausman http://www.leadershipbynumbers.com | 12/4/2008 4:38:47 PM

    Please tell me that someone, somewhere is making "Microsoft Free" t-shirts for this occasion.

  1. 5  Karl-Henry Martinsson http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/texasswede/ | 12/4/2008 5:01:37 PM

    £3: I downloaded the Notes 8.5 beta from the Passport website, and simply clicked on the installer. Installed perfectly. Only thing I had to do was install some new fonts, or everything used a monospace Courier-like font...

    Same with Symphony, just downloaded the install package and clicked on it. As easy as installing any Windows program.

    I now have a Ubuntu 8.10 machine with both products on. A bit slow, it's an older machine with limited memory (512 MB I think), but it works. Even SameTime works fine. :-)

  1. 6  Dave Hay http://www.davehay.f2s.com | 12/5/2008 12:07:51 AM

    #3 I'd echo Karl-Henry's comments. I've been running various public and beta versions of Notes 8.X on various releases of Ubunutu for most of the year. Right now, I'm using 8.5 beta 2 (ish) on 8.10, which gives me Notes, Sametime AND Symphony.

    I, along with a number of other IBMers, blog about our experiences with Ubuntu etc.

    Regards, Dave

  1. 7  Randall Shimizu  | 12/5/2008 12:39:24 AM

    @2 The IBM Virtual desktop is a major step in the right direction. One big advantage of the Virtual Bridges ({ Link } ) is that it uses a type 1 bare metal hypervisor. This eliminates the need for a native OS to be installed.

    If IBM were to adopt a companywide initiative then this would give Virtual Desktop a major advantage.

  1. 8  Mike Brown  | 12/5/2008 1:33:02 AM

    From The VAR Guy:

    "Moves like this have got to drive the folks in Redmond crazy. The old per-seat PC Windows tax is on its death bed, folks."

    { Link }

  1. 9  Bill Brown  | 12/5/2008 9:18:45 AM

    Does the $49/seat include the Notes/Domino license, or is that extra?

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2008 9:39:26 AM

    @1 Notes 8.5 supports Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition and SLED 10.

    @9 $49 is Virtual Bridges' VERDE price.

  1. 11  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 12/5/2008 11:14:02 AM

    @10 - That didn't really answer Bill's question.

    If the Virtual Desktop includes all the IBM Lotus Collaboration platform features, then that implies that a user on that system has a mail box and access to applications. Which implies that they're a licensed Notes user.

    Is that the case? Or do they need to buy a separate license for each user to legally use Notes mail & applications?

  1. 12  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2008 12:03:56 PM

    @11 I'm not sure how exactly the licensing process works, but yes, a Notes license needs to be acquired for users to use Notes. The VERDE price is the one advertised in the press release.

  1. 13  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 12/5/2008 1:33:39 PM

    @12 - Thanks for the clarification. :-)

  1. 14  Rob Ingram  | 12/5/2008 5:32:26 PM

    Nice posting and headline here

    { Link }

  1. 15  Mike Brown  | 12/5/2008 6:29:14 PM

    @10

    Is LTS support going to be the aim, going forward, Ed? Or are you going to try and keep up with Ubuntu's six monthly release cycle?

    Cheers,

    - Mike

  1. 16  Randall Shimizu  | 12/5/2008 7:52:11 PM

    Ed

    Is there a link to the actual IBM Desktop linux services offering besides the press release...?

  1. 17  Bill Brown  | 12/8/2008 7:32:42 AM

    @10 Thanks for clarifying.

    Do you know if there will be a VMWare version of this desktop available? Our organization is already standardized on the platform for servers and will be expanding on it for desktops.