Johannesburg, 09 Jan 2004
According to a leaked internal memo, IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano has challenged his company to move to Linux desktops by 2005. IBM SA would not comment.
The memo, written by IBM CIO Bob Greenberg in November and leaked to The Inquirer Web site, calls for the replacement of productivity, Web access and viewing tools with open standards-based equivalents by 2005.
"Our chairman has challenged the IT organisation, and indeed all of IBM to move to a Linux-based desktop by the end of 2005," Greenberg wrote. "This means replacing productivity, Web access and viewing tools with open standards-based equivalents."
The company has formed what is called the Open Desktop project office to facilitate this.
This challenge is one of two "key projects that are central to our vision of IBM as an on-demand business", the memo added. The other is the On-Demand Workplace (ODW), which will "provide employees with immediate access to resources and capabilities in an integrated role-based work environment".
The memo calls for business unit-specific portals, Web sites, standalone applications and capabilities to be integrated into the ODW.
"To support this, the CIO`s organisation is structuring a framework that will provide the set of definitions/standards for those building these resources and capabilities. This will ultimately provide a consistent user experience for all employees that runs on a common platform in a shared environment that leverages common services by all applications."
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