<a href="http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21217750%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html">http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21217750%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html</a><br>"<table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="475">
<tbody><tr><td width="475"><span class="blacknewsheader">IBM looks to Apple, Linux</span><br>
<span class="blackbodytext">Eric Auchard and Michael Kahn in San Francisco</span><br>
<span class="greydate">
FEBRUARY 13, 2007 </span>
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<span class="blackbodytext">IBM
will offer an open desktop software system for businesses that puts the
cost of managing Apple or Linux computers on a more equal footing with
Microsoft's Windows software, improving the economics of Windows
alternatives.<br><br>
The product - which the company calls its "Open Client Offering" -
pulls together software IBM has developed in-house and with partners
Novell and Red Hat to answer questions over the cost-effectiveness of
managing Linux or Apple desktop PCs alongside Windows PCs.
<p> IBM said the new software made it feasible for big businesses to
offer their employees a choice of running Windows, Linux or Apple
Macintosh software on desktop PCs, using the same underlying software
code. This cut the costs of managing Linux or Apple relative to
Windows. </p>
<p> IBM's Open Client software chips away at long-time rival
Microsoft's Windows franchise by making it unnecessary for companies to
pay Microsoft for licences for operations that no longer rely on
Windows-based software. The move comes as corporate decision-makers
have begun to mull when it makes sense to upgrade to Microsoft's
Windows Vista. </p></span></td></tr></tbody></table>"<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Ubuntu Dapper 6.10<br>The less you know, the more you believe. - Bono