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.Link: eWeek: IBM Virtual Desktop Bundles Lotus, Ubuntu Linux to Freeze Out Microsoft >
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.
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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?
- 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?
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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.
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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. :-)
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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
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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.
- 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 }
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Bill Brown | 12/5/2008 9:18:45 AM
Does the $49/seat include the Notes/Domino license, or is that extra?
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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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 13
Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 12/5/2008 1:33:39 PM
@12 - Thanks for the clarification. :-)
- 14
Rob Ingram | 12/5/2008 5:32:26 PM
Nice posting and headline here
{ Link }
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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
- 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...?
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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.


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 }