Posts Tagged 'open source'

CRN: The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

CRN are continuing with their ‘Top 10‘ series to wrap up 2008 with this list of ‘The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008‘. This time the focus is at the open source community, that has much more to offer than (just) Linux OS. Open source products will grow bigger in market share in 2009, as companies and individuals alike are looking for ways to cut down costs. Obviously, IBM’s own Lotus Symphony, which is based on OpenOffice.org, is included in this list, coming in at #3, just after Linux OS and OpenOffice 3.0. Here’s what CRN had to say about Symphony:

IBM has taken great pains to position itself as more of a middleware company than a desktop productivity software company, but diverged from that path a bit in 2008. By launching and upgrading its IBM Lotus Symphony suite of productivity apps based on OpenOffice.org, IBM is once again using the Lotus brand to take aim against Microsoft on the desktop.

Link:
CRN – The 10 Coolest Open Source Products of 2008

Free your desktop

IBM’s participation at LinuxWorld last week marked its 10th appearance, and we certainly made an impression, with some major announcements, including this one, which ZDnet dubbed ‘IBM, Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat Gang Up on Vista‘.

The slow adoption of Vista among businesses and budget-conscious CIOs, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux. We’ll work to unlock the desktop to save our customers money and give freedom of choice by offering this industry-leading solution [Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president for IBM’s Lotus Software].

In plain English (and Hebrew to our customers), IBM will offer Windows-free PCs, coupled with Linux as the OS and Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony as the pre-installed messaging and office productivity suite platforms. Nice 🙂

As Larry Dignan is saying at ZDnet, Microsoft market share won’t decrease significantly, but the move itself, and the ‘teaming’ with open source vendors (Red Hat, Ubuntu and Novell), will be interesting to follow.

Couple of videos for you to watch:
Lotus Notes 8.0 on Linux
Review by Ron Sebastian – IBM Lotus Symphony
Tired of feeding the machine?
Clean your desktop

Links:
ZDnet.com – IBM, Ubuntu, Red Hat and Novell gang up on Vista
Cnet.com – IBM, open source and the ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop
InformationWeek.com – Lenovo is talks to join IBM’s ‘Microsoft-free’ program




Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.